Vassilios studied pharmacy in the University of Athens, Greece. He received his PhD in 2010 from the same institute, working on rational design of small-molecule inhibitors of disease-relevant kinases like GSK3β and the DYRKs, with emphasis on molecules related to natural products. Part of his thesis was done in the Structural Genomics Consortium, University of Oxford, in the group of Professor Stefan Knapp. From 2010 to 2017 he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Pharmaceutical Chemistry laboratory of NKUA, in collaboration with the Target Discovery Institute of Oxford and in the Pharmainformatics module of Athena Research Center.
He was appointed at his present position as Assistant Professor in 2019 and he was tenured in 2024. His current research is focused on the combined implementation of advanced biophysical methodologies and theoretical simulations toward discovery and optimization of small molecules as potent and selective drug leads or chemical probes. Another aspect of his research is development of models for simulating physicochemical properties of drugs (emphasis on blood-brain barrier). The main targets of his research involve epigenetic protein modules (mainly the hub UHRF1) and protein kinases. He has on-going collaborations with the Pharmacy Department of the Goethe University of Frankfurt and the Department of Chemistry of the University at Buffalo.
Major contributions in:
Discovery and development of three highly selective inhibitors currently commercialized as tools for biological research.
Eur. J. Med. Chem., 2016, 114, 390-396
(MEDCHEMEXPRESS Cat. No. HY-103236)
● Compound (R)-CR8 targeting protein kinase CK1
J. Med. Chem., 2008, 51, 5229-5242
(TOCRIS Cat. No. 3605)
● Compound 6BIO targeting protein kinase GSK3β
J. Med. Chem., 2004, 47, 935-946
(TCI Cat. No. B4006)
Other contributions in:
● Development of innovative immunohistochemical method for in vitro screening of senotherapeutic compounds (Methods Mol. Biol., Cellular senescence, 2019, 119-138).
● Development of on-line, open-access protocol for in silico screening with increased robustness based on consensus ranking (Future Med. Chem., 2018, 10, 2411-2430).
● Determination of 8 crystal structures deposited in PBD, including DYRK2 kinase complexed for the first time with inhibitor (ACS Med. Chem. Lett., 2013, 4, 22-26) and bromodomain epigenetic proteins bound to flavonoids (J. Med. Chem., 2016, 59, 8787-8803).
● Discovery of a highly original hit targeting the SWI/SNF-related epigenetic drug target Polybromo-1(5) (J. Med. Chem., 2016, 59, 8787-8803).
● Identification of clinically used drug benzerazide as potent inhibitor of CBS enzyme with significant tumor growth inhibitory activity in vivo and potential to repurposing (Pharmacol. Res., 2016, 113A, 18-37).
● Explanation of effects related to inhibitor selectivity observed for closely related Aurora kinases A, B and C (J. Med. Chem., 2007, 50, 4027-4037).