Nikolaos Koundouros, Ph.D.
Favorite movie: Snatch
Hometown: Toronto
Non-science activity: Footy and learning the saxophone.
Dream benchmate: Bob Ross
One item from bucket list: Set a Guiness World Record
Scientific interests: Understanding how diet and nutrient sensing shapes therapy response in breast cancer
Current research interests: Elucidating the mechanism through which mTOR senses dietary fats and how this is linked to breast cancer pathogenesis and therapy response.
Research:
I did my undergraduate studies in the UK at the University of Bristol, and my PhD at the Institute of Cancer Research in London. There, my primary research focused on characterizing the mechanisms linking metabolic phenotypes and cancer cell genotypes, with the ultimate goal of improving diagnostics and personalized therapies for breast cancer patients. As a Charles H. Revson Fellow in the Blenis lab, I am working to understand how cancer cells sense and utilize different types of fats – including omega-6 and omega-3 PUFAs - as a nutrient source through the mTOR pathway, and whether altering dietary fat intake can sensitize tumors to existing drug treatments.
Selected Publications:
Koundouros N, Blenis J. (2022). Targeting mTOR in the Context of Diet and Whole-body Metabolism. Endocrinology, 163(6):bqac04.
Koundouros N, Karali E, Tripp A, Valle A, Inglese P, Perry NJS, Magee DJ, Anjomani Virmouni S, Elder GA, Tyson AL, Dória ML, van Weverwijk A, Soares RF, Isacke CM, Nicholson JK, Glen RC, Takats Z, Poulogiannis G. Metabolic Fingerprinting Links Oncogenic PIK3CA with Enhanced Arachidonic Acid-Derived Eicosanoids. Cell. 2020 Jun 25;181(7):1596-1611.e27. PMID: 32559461.
Koundouros N, Poulogiannis G. Reprogramming of fatty acid metabolism in cancer. Br J Cancer. 2020 Jan;122(1):4-22. PubMed PMID: 31819192.
van Weverwijk A, Koundouros N, Iravani M, Ashenden M, Gao Q, Poulogiannis G, Jungwirth U, Isacke CM. Metabolic adaptability in metastatic breast cancer by AKR1B10-dependent balancing of glycolysis and fatty acid oxidation. Nat Commun. 2019 Jun 20;10(1):2698. PMID: 31221959.
Gupta A, Anjomani-Virmouni S, Koundouros N, Dimitriadi M, Choo-Wing R, Valle A, Zheng Y, Chiu YH, Agnihotri S, Zadeh G, Asara JM, Anastasiou D, Arends MJ, Cantley LC, Poulogiannis G. PARK2 Depletion Connects Energy and Oxidative Stress to PI3K/Akt Activation via PTEN S-Nitrosylation. Mol Cell. 2017 Mar 16;65(6):999-1013.e7. PMID: 28306514.
Honors and Awards:
2021 Best oral presentation, Postdoctoral Association Conference, Weill Cornell Medicine
2020 Research highlight in Nature Reviews Cancer
2020 Keystone Symposia Future of Science Fund Scholarship
2018 Best poster award, Abcam Cancer and Metabolism Conference, Cambridge, UK