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About the Lab
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Our Lab is situated at the first floor of the UCY Medical School building (at the Siakolas Educational Centre for Clinical Medicine). The Lab was built in 2016 as part of a major building refurbishment that started a year earlier, in order to house the Medical School of the University of Cyprus. Meet the Lab's members here!
The Lab's mission is:
The Lab's Research and Objective
Our research focuses on drug discovery and drug repurposing through target-based and disease-oriented screening approaches in both in vitro and in vivo systems. We investigate the pharmacological activity of compounds and evaluate their biological effects in relevant cellular (cell lines or primary cells) and whole-organism models, with particular emphasis on zebrafish.
A central area of our work is the development and application of zebrafish models, including orthotopic and patient-derived tumour xenografts, to study cancer biology, therapeutic response, toxicity, and disease-related phenotypes in vivo, with a primary focus on glioblastoma, while we also work on other cancers and translational oncology applications.
In parallel, we use zebrafish models for various behavioural, toxicological, and pharmacological in vivo studies, against various chronic diseases, including neurodegenerative models, enabling the real-time assessment of drug efficacy, safety, and organism-level responses.
Through customized screening pipelines using compound libraries, cellular assays, and in vivo models, we aim to identify promising bioactive compounds, uncover new therapeutic uses for existing drugs, and generate mechanistic insights that support translational research in pharmacology and biomedicine.
Check our Lab's progress through our Lab News page!
Our Lab is situated at the first floor of the UCY Medical School building (at the Siakolas Educational Centre for Clinical Medicine). The Lab was built in 2016 as part of a major building refurbishment that started a year earlier, in order to house the Medical School of the University of Cyprus. Meet the Lab's members here!
The Lab's mission is:
- To lead the Medical School's laboratory research in drug discovery and develop research activities that will translate into therapeutic applications.
- To provide quality research training in preclinical and clinical pharmacology for medical students and support the School's postgraduate research programs in the area of drug science and experimental therapeutics.
The Lab's Research and Objective
Our research focuses on drug discovery and drug repurposing through target-based and disease-oriented screening approaches in both in vitro and in vivo systems. We investigate the pharmacological activity of compounds and evaluate their biological effects in relevant cellular (cell lines or primary cells) and whole-organism models, with particular emphasis on zebrafish.
A central area of our work is the development and application of zebrafish models, including orthotopic and patient-derived tumour xenografts, to study cancer biology, therapeutic response, toxicity, and disease-related phenotypes in vivo, with a primary focus on glioblastoma, while we also work on other cancers and translational oncology applications.
In parallel, we use zebrafish models for various behavioural, toxicological, and pharmacological in vivo studies, against various chronic diseases, including neurodegenerative models, enabling the real-time assessment of drug efficacy, safety, and organism-level responses.
Through customized screening pipelines using compound libraries, cellular assays, and in vivo models, we aim to identify promising bioactive compounds, uncover new therapeutic uses for existing drugs, and generate mechanistic insights that support translational research in pharmacology and biomedicine.
Check our Lab's progress through our Lab News page!
The Lab's Research Portfolio
To achieve our objectives we combine the key capacity & equipment of our Lab (such as our drug library, HTS capacity and zebrafish modelling) with specialized expertise in various pharmacological assays using molecular and behavioural modelling. Explore our Lab's research portfolio and current projects.
To achieve our objectives we combine the key capacity & equipment of our Lab (such as our drug library, HTS capacity and zebrafish modelling) with specialized expertise in various pharmacological assays using molecular and behavioural modelling. Explore our Lab's research portfolio and current projects.
The Lab's vision
The Lab aspires to play an important role in bridging pre-clinical and clinical studies in Cyprus through target-based and disease-orientated high-throughput screening of novel and clinical drugs on various models of disease. Our vision is to become a national centre of research excellence in drug discovery and translational pharmacological studies.
Alignment with the Strategic Aims of the Republic of Cyprus
The Lab is fully aligned with the Republic of Cyprus Smart Specialization Strategy (S3Cy) of the Directorate General for European Programmes, Coordination and Development. More specifically, the Lab falls under the Health Section of the S3Cy and its aims and activities align fully with Priority C: "Development of Safe & Effective Drugs", in particularly Priority C3: "Molecular Diagnostics and Production of Specialized Drugs" which is characterised by the Republic as 'High Priority'. You can find out more about the S3Cy here.
The Lab aspires to play an important role in bridging pre-clinical and clinical studies in Cyprus through target-based and disease-orientated high-throughput screening of novel and clinical drugs on various models of disease. Our vision is to become a national centre of research excellence in drug discovery and translational pharmacological studies.
Alignment with the Strategic Aims of the Republic of Cyprus
The Lab is fully aligned with the Republic of Cyprus Smart Specialization Strategy (S3Cy) of the Directorate General for European Programmes, Coordination and Development. More specifically, the Lab falls under the Health Section of the S3Cy and its aims and activities align fully with Priority C: "Development of Safe & Effective Drugs", in particularly Priority C3: "Molecular Diagnostics and Production of Specialized Drugs" which is characterised by the Republic as 'High Priority'. You can find out more about the S3Cy here.