Dimitris Beis

Associate Professor of Biological Chemistry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ioannina.

Abstract of your research field

My research interests are in the areas of Biochemistry, Cellular and Developmental Biology. My lab is using zebrafish to model Human Disease and identify novel bioactive compounds. The main focus of my lab is on cardiovascular disease and angiogenesis. We have been able to identify the significance of intracardiac flow dynamics during the development of the heart for proper cardiac valve development. We recently expanded our strategy to study the mechanisms of cardiovascular regeneration exploiting the extraordinary regenerative potential of zebrafish. We showed that zebrafish can regenerate their cardiac valves and identified the Notch and TGF? signaling pathways as key regulators for the first steps of this process. We now study the role of the innate immune response during cardiac regeneration.

Photo description

1. A) Zebrafish are a valuable model for Biomedical Research. B) Confocal 3D reconstruction of an adult zebrafish heart, outlining the heart vessels (coronary network) using the fli1:GFP transgenic line. C) Confocal 3D reconstruction of an adult zebrafish heart with the atrioventricular and aortic valves stained with an elastin antibody.

Research aims:

1. 1. Identify novel genes causing cardiovascular disease, exploiting GWAS and variants of unknown significance from Human Genetic studies
   2. Identify the role of the innate immune response during cardiac regeneration
   3. Identify novel bioactive compounds from natural products and other complex extracts