Greek-American Researchers Seek Cure for Cancer

Greek Diaspora members have been travelling across the world, making a difference and contributing to science. Greek-Americans Dr. Panagiotis Anastasiadis and Dr. Antonis Kourtidis, researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida, are seeking a cure for cancer, notably a way to transform cancerous cells into healthy tissue.

“Cancer researchers dream of the day they can force tumor cells to morph back to the normal cells they once were. Now, researchers on Mayo Clinic’s Florida campus have discovered a way to potentially reprogram cancer cells back to normalcy. The finding, published in Nature Cell Biology, represents an unexpected new biology that provides the code, the software for turning off cancer,” noted the clinic’s official announcement.

“The study brings together two so-far unrelated research fields — cell-to-cell adhesion and miRNA biology — to resolve a long-standing problem about the role of adhesion proteins in cell behavior that was baffling scientists,” noted Kourtidis. “Most significantly, it uncovers a new strategy for cancer therapy,” he added.

Dr. Anastasiadis, who currently serves as the Chair of the Department of Cancer Biology at Mayo Clinic, as well as Dr. Kourtidis got their degrees in Biology from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and then went on to continue their studies in American Universities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGYTLOGZ40U