Lab Head

         Every academic & scientist should have a mission to inspire students, motivate trainees, support mentors and challenge peers.

Dr Nikolas Dietis,  BSc, BSc(Hons), MRes, Ph.D
​​Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, UCY Medical School

He has received four research awards, including the Best Paper Award at the prestigious GLOBECOM 2020 Congress for his contributory work on the role of growing bio-nanomachine networks in glioblastoma evolution and progression.  ​Dr Dietis' has completed all his basic training in the UK (BSc Pharmacology; University of Portsmouth, BSc Neuropharmacology; Nottingham Trent University, MRes Applied Biosciences/Neuropharmacology; Nottingham Trent University) and earned his PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Leicester for his research in the pharmacology of novel bifunctional opioids as potential analgesic drugs against cancer pain. Before joining UCY in 2015, he worked as a Lecturer in Pharmacological Sciences at the University of Tasmania (Australia), researching the links between opioid pharmacology in rodent models of chronic pain and depression..His current research interests revolve around drug discovery & repurposing using target-based and disease-oriented high-throughput screenings against cellular and behavioural assays for cancer & neurological diseases. 

Dr Dietis is a Registered Expert at the European Commission in the field of Pharmacology (Reg: EX2022D543045), a certified Research Evaluator of the General Secretariat for Research and Innovation in Greece (Reg: 17609, ID: 68268), an appointed Examiner of the Cyprus State Scholarship Foundation (ID: I.K.Y.K.1.1.04.1/V), an appointed Independent Evaluator at the Council of Recognition of Higher Qualifications (KYSATS; ID: 7.9.05.14) and a registered Speaker at the Young Universities for the Future of Europe (YUFE) alliance.

Dr Dietis has and has been a strong advocate for innovation in Medical Education. He has received 3 Teaching Excellence Awards from the University of Tasmania, he is a certified Quality Reviewer of Online Courses by the Quality Matters in USA and a member of the Technology Enhanced Learning Special Interest Group at the prestigious Association for the Study of Medical Education.
At UCY, Dr Dietis teaches Pharmacology at the undergraduate MD program and Pharmacogenomics at the Masters in Precision Medicine program, He has been a member of the UCY Center for Teaching & Learning for 6 years and is currently serving as a member of the Medical School's Quality Assurance & Continuous Improvement Committee, and a member of the UCY Quality Assurance Committee.

In 2016, Dr Dietis founded the Experimental Pharmacology Laboratory at the UCY Medical School as the first pharmacology research laboratory in Cyprus, with the aim to focus on drug repurposing. Under the umbrella of the Lab's activities, in 2018 he founded the first Zebrafish laboratory in Cyprus, with the aim to apply toxicological, behavioural and translational assays of drug profiling & phenotyping against human disease models. The zebrafish facility at the Experimental Pharmacology Laboratory is currently focusing on zebrafish cancer models using cell-line and patient-derived (avatars) xenografts for the study of cancer pharmacotherapeutics, drug delivery and drug profiling in a variety of cancer types, with a major focus on glioblastoma (brain cancer).

Current Lab Members (2025-2026)

panagiotou.savvas(at)ucy.ac.cy

Savvas Panagiotou, MBA
Lab Manager - Technical Engineer, UCY Medical School

Savvas is a Technical Engineer specialized in Medical Devices and joined the UCY Medical School as a Laboratory Manager. He has a degree in Biomedical Engineering (Technological Educational Institution of Athens, Greece). Savvas also holds an MSc in Business Administration (Open University of Cyprus) and is a registered member of the Medical Representative Council.

agathangelou.kyriacos(at)ucy.ac.cy

Dr Kyriacos Agathangelou, PhD
​Post-Doctoral Scientist, UCY Medical School

Dr Agathangelou has a BSc in Biochemistry & Biotechnology (University of Thessaly) and an MSc in Molecular Biology (University of Cyprus). He has completed laboratory training at the Cyprus Institute of Neurology & Genetics and King's College London and completed his PhD at the University of Crete (Greece) with a Marie-Curie Fellow scholarship at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB-FORTH). He has worked as a post-doctoral scientist at EPOS-Iasis Research & Development Ltd and has been teaching molecular & cellular biology, biochemistry and nutrition & metabolism at the European University of Cyprus. Kyriakos is working on the modeling of zebrafish xenografts of various cancers. 

nikouli.sofia(at)ucy.ac.cy
hadjisavva.rania(at)cy.ac.cy

Dr Rania Hadjisavva, PhD  & Dr Sofia Nikouli, PhD 
​Post-Doctoral Researchers at BiobankCY

Dr Hadjisavva and Dr Nikouli work in our zebrafish lab under a collaboration with the BiobankCY. Dr Rania Hadjisavva holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences (University of Cyprus) and has research experience in molecular biology and advanced bioimaging modalities and optogenetic techniques. Dr Sofia Nikouli holds a PhD in Molecular Medicine (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece) and is an experienced molecular biologist on cardiac stem cells and stem cell-based therapies for cardiovascular diseases. Rania & Sofia are working on zebrafish mutants with cardiac pathology phenotype.

flourou.christina(at)auth.gr

Christina Flourou, MD
 PhD student - Medical School, University of Athens 

Dr Flourou is a Special Pathologist (Internal Medicine) at the Nicosia General Hospital. She graduated with an MD (Aristotle University Medical School, Greece) and completed her Internal Medicine specialization in 2022. She holds an MSc at Clinical & Industrial Pharmacology - Clinical Toxicology (Aristotle University Medical School, Greece)  Christina has been trained in lipidology by the Greek Society of Lipidology, Atherosclerosis and Vascular Disease. She is currently a PhD student at the University of Athens working in our lab for her research project, as part   of   a  research collaboration. She is working on zebrafish models of liver steatosis and its relationship with the neuronal-liver axis.

apostolou.styliani(at)ucy.ac.cy

Styliana Apostolou
​MSc student, UCY Medical School

Styliana has graduated with a BSc in Psychology (University of Cyprus) and is currently a post-graduate student at the MSc Precision Medicine in Clinical Practice program of the UCY Medical School. Styliana has joined our lab for her Masters' research project. Styliana is working on glioblastoma resistance to temozolamide.

kitiri.mikaella(at)ucy.ac.cy

Mikaella Kitiri
Research Associate, ​MD student, UCY Medical School

Ms Kitiri is a final-year MD student at the UCY Medical School. She has been an MD Intern in our Lab during 2020-2022. She is now a research associate of the lab, working on a funded project by the University of Cyprus. Mikaella has founded a company which received the "Business Idea Award" at the Cyprus Entrepreneurship Competition of the 7th Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum, received the "Rectors’ Honorary Award" at the Business & Entrepreneurship Competition, Student Innovators 2022 organized by the Center for Entrepreneurship of the University of Cyprus and was advocated at the Beyond Pre-Accelerator Program of the Junior Achievements Cyprus. Mikaela is working on the opiorphin peptide and its relationship with pain perception in cancer patients. 

koupepia.ioanna(at)ucy.ac.cy

Ioanna Koupepia
​​BSc student - Department of Biology, UCY

Ioanna is a final year BSc student at the Department of Biology at UCY. She joined our Lab in 2024 for her final-year thesis. Ioanna is working on zebrafish xenograft orthotopic models of glioblastoma.

mjbooij(at)st.noorderpoort.nl

Mellanie Booij
Erasmus student - Noorderpoort, The Netherlands.

Mellanie is currently a MBO Chemical-Physical Analyst student at Noorderpoort, Groningen (The Netherlands). In 2023 she completed a laboratory internship at the Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacy & Pharmacology of the University Medical Center Groningen (The Netherlands). She has joined our lab for an Erasmus internship, as part of her final qualification assessment. Mellanie is helping our lab manage our comprehensive Drug Library and she assists in data analysis from various anticancer projects in the lab.

clara.alban(at)etu.uca.fr

Clara Alban
MSc Research Intern - L'Université Clermont Auvergne, France.

Clara is an MSc student in Biological Engineering (Polytech Clermont-Ferrand Engineering School, L'Université Clermont Auvergne, France). She holds a BSc in Engineering-Biology (Polytech Montpellier Engineering School, France). Clara has joined our lab for a 5-month research internship towards her final thesis degree. She is working on the pharmacological screening of glioblastoma neurospheres.

Maria Phiniotou 
MD Student Year 3, UCY Medical School

Maria

Marios Agathangelou
MD Student Year 3, UCY Medical School

Marios

Gianna Koumourou
MD Student Year 3, UCY Medical School

Gianna

Alexandra Syrimi, Majdoleen Abuhajar and Chrysovalanto Fotiou
MD Student Interns, Year 2, UCY Medical School

Alexandra, Majdoleen and Chrysovalanto are 2nd year medical students working in our lab for their year research project. They work on the pharmacological resistance of temozolomide in glioblastoma cell lines.

Stavros Stavrou, Taisia Balabanidou and Georgia Zinonos
MD Student Interns Year 2, UCY Medical School

Stavros, Taisia and Georgia are 2nd year medical students working in our lab for their year research project. They work on prostate cancer cell lines and zebrafish  xenografts of prostate cancer.

Lab Alumni

Ms Sofia Challouma (MSc Toxicology graduate 2025)
Ms Maria Glytsi (BSc Biology graduate 2024)
Ms Nefeli Kourouna (BSc Biology graduate 2024)
​Ms Maria Kouma (MSc graduate 2024)
Ms Charalambia Lazarou (BSc Biology graduate 2022)
Ms Maria Panayiotou (BSc Biology graduate 2022)
Ms Despoina Vangeli (MSc graduate 2021)​
Dr Marios Markoulides (Visiting Scientist - Post Doc 2019-2021)
Ms Chrystalla Pavlou (Lab Manager - Research Assistant 2019-2020)
Dr Marina Demetriades (Research Associate 2018-2019)

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Michael Spyrou (MD Intern 2022-2024)
Konstantinos Michaelides (MD Intern 2023-2024)
Maria Roussia (MD Intern 2021-2023)
Giannis Agrimanakis (MD Intern 2021-2023)
Xeni Kosofidou (MD Intern 2021-2023)
Natalia Anastasiou (MD Intern 2021-2023)
Marianna Vitali (MD Intern 2021-2023)
Jumana El Bakri​ (MD Intern 2021-2023)
Adamos Theodorou (MD Intern 2021-2023)
Andriana Hadjigianni (MD Intern 2022-2023)
Michael Temvriotis (MD Intern 2022-2023)
Christos Mastis​ (MD Intern 2022-2023)
​Vasiliki Tzalili (MD Intern 2022-2023)
Stella Gkountinaki (MD Intern 2022-2023)
Konstantinos Mihaelides​ (MD Intern 2022-2023)
​Effrosyni Lambrou​ (MD Intern 2022-2023)
Orestis Germanos (MD Intern 2020-2022)
Irene Filippou (MD Intern 2020-2022)
Mikaella Chrysostomou (MD Intern 2020-2022)
Mikaella Kitiri (MD Intern 2020-2022)

Christina Pasiouli (MD Intern 2019-2021)
Vasiliki Vasileiou (MD Intern 2019-2021)
​Marina Evangellou (MD Intern 2019-2021)
Sofia Philippou (MD Intern 2019-2021)
Charalambos Apostolopoulos (MD Intern 2019-2021)
Stephani Hadjievagorou (MD Intern 2019-2021)
Petros Pieri  (MD Intern 2019-2021)
Stephanos Hilides (MD Intern 2019-2021)
Konstantinos Sykallos (MD Intern 2019-2021)
​Nikos Ververides (MD Intern 2018-2020)
Antonis Pilavas (MD Intern 2018-2020)
Egli Kosti (MD Intern 2018-2020)
Melani Theodoridou​ (MD Intern 2018-2020)
Argyris Konstantinou (MD Intern 2018-2020)
Andreas Menoikou (MD Intern 2018-2020)
​Persefoni Panayi (MD Intern 2018-2020)
Eleni Xenophontos (MD Intern 2019-2020)
Chrystalla Souroupi (MD Intern 2016-2017)
Alexandros Georgiou (MD Intern 2016-2017)
Athina Fouli (MD Intern 2016-2017)
Irene Tsappa (MD Intern 2016-2017)