Emmanouil Dermitzakis

Emmanouil Theophilos Dermitzakis (born April 3, 1972) is a Greek human geneticist and professor in the Department of Genetic Medicine and Development at the University of Geneva, where he is also Director of the Health 2030 Genome Center. He is an ISI Highly Cited Researcher and an elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization.[1][2] He is a member of the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, where his research group is focused on the genetics and genomics of complex traits in humans.[3] He has joined GlaxoSmithKline as Vice President, Computational Biology in R&D.[4]

Emmanouil T. Dermitzakis
Born
Emmanouil Theophilos Dermitzakis

(1972-04-03) April 3, 1972
NationalityGreek
EducationUniversity of Crete
Pennsylvania State University
SpouseYes
Children3
Scientific career
FieldsGenomics
Population genetics
InstitutionsUniversity of Geneva
ThesisEvolution of components of gene regulation in Drosophila and mammals (2001)
Doctoral advisorAndrew G. Clark

Early years

Dermitzakis graduated from High School in Pagrati, Athens. His dream of becoming a geneticist was spurred by two pages on genetic engineering in a Biology book in the school curriculum.[5] His father was a physician and former classmate of professor Fotis Kafatos, who inspired him to later enter the field of research.[6]

Education

Dermitzakis completed his graduate degree in Biology at the University of Crete in 1995 and then earned a Master of Science at the same University in 1997.[7] During an interview he confessed that he did not achieve a high score in his first degree, nevertheless his drive for research helped him pursue doctoral studies in the USA.[6] He completed his doctoral thesis in the evolution of components of gene regulation in Drosophila and mammals at Penn State University in 2001.[7] He then completed postdoctoral studies at the Medical School of the University of Geneva in 2004 with his research on comparative genome analysis and the functional characterization of conserved non-genic elements.[8]

Career

After completing his studies Dermitzakis moved to the United Kingdom, where he worked as a group leader and member of the academic council at the Wellcome Sanger Institute from 2004 to 2009.[9] He continued his research career in Switzerland, as Professor of Genetics in the Department of Genetic Medicine and Development at the University of Geneva and in research centres including Frontiers in Genetics and the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics in Geneva.[10] He has served as Director of the Health 2030 Genome Center and is a member of the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens in Greece.[6] In November 2019 he was appointed chairman of the Greek National Council for Research, Technology and Innovation, however a few months later he resigned, having said that his role on the council was merely decorative.[11] In October 2020 he was appointed Director of the Institute of Genetics and Genomics of Geneva (known also as iGE3).[12]

Distinctions

Dermitzakis has published over 160 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals such as Nature and Science with over 89,000 citations.[13] Before the age of 40 he was already on the Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers list in the field of Molecular Biology and Genetics.[14] His research has been funded by the European Research Council (ERC), the European Union, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the American National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Wellcome Trust, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and the Louis-Jeantet Foundation.[15] Dermitzakis has earned numerous awards and continues to appear on the ISI Highly Cited Researchers List every year from 2014 onward.[16]

Scientific contributions

Dermitzakis has been one of the first scientists to reveal the importance of non-coding DNA in evolution and disease susceptibility. His papers on the evolution of regulatory elements showed the dynamic nature of regulatory sequences.[17] His group has pioneered the analysis of non-coding regulatory variants in the human genome and their effect on gene expression regulation,[18][19][20][21][22] chromatin patterns and regulatory interactions[23][24] and 3D genome interactions in cis and trans regulatory variants[25] and how they are impacting cellular function as well as disease susceptibility[26][27] and cancer.[28]

He has participated in international genetics projects such as ENCODE,[29] HapMap,[30] GTEx[31] and more recently in the International Common Disease Alliance (ICDA).[32]

Personal life

Manolis Dermitzakis is married to attorney Ria Kechagia and the couple have three children.[33]

References

  1. "Emmanouil T. Dermitzakis Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). July 2017. Retrieved June 7, 2019.
  2. "Professor Emmanouil (Manolis) Dermitzakis". UNIGE School of Medicine FunPopGen. Retrieved June 7, 2019.
  3. Flegel, Sylvie. "Dermitzakis Emmanouil (Manolis)". SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics. Retrieved June 7, 2019.
  4. "ASHG Honors Emmanouil Dermitzakis, PhD with the 2021 Curt Stern Award". American Society of Human Genetics. 12 July 2021. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  5. Θεοδώρα, Τσώλη (2019-11-18). "Μανώλης Δερμιτζάκης : Ηρθε να "νοικοκυρέψει" την έρευνα στην Ελλάδα". Ειδήσεις - νέα - Το Βήμα Online (in Greek). Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  6. "GoodNews.gr - Μανώλης Δερμιτζάκης: Αυτός είναι ο επιστήμονας που συντονίζει την εμβληματική δράση COVID-19-GR". goodnews.gr (in Greek). Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  7. IEFIMERIDA.GR, NEWSROOM (2014-11-05). "Ενας Κρητικός στους σπουδαιότερους επιστήμονες του κόσμου -Εκείνοι που θα επηρεάσουν δραστικά τις ζωές μας | STORIES". iefimerida.gr (in Greek). Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  8. "Professor Emmanouil (Manolis) Dermitzakis |". funpopgen.unige.ch. Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  9. "Μανώλης Δερμιτζάκης "What's that in your genes and are you happy to see it?"". The HUB Events (in Greek). Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  10. "Ο Μ. Δερμιτζάκης πρόεδρος στο Εθνικό Συμβούλιο Έρευνας, Τεχνολογίας και Καινοτομίας | naftemporiki.gr". www.naftemporiki.gr (in Greek). 2019-08-11. Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  11. Ιωάννα, Σουφλέρη (2020-08-26). "Δερμιτζάκης: Οι απόψεις μου για την έρευνα δεν ταυτίζονταν με της κυβέρνησης". Ειδήσεις - νέα - Το Βήμα Online (in Greek). Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  12. "New director for iGE3 - Emmanouil Dermitzakis". iGE3 (Institute of Genetics and Genomics of Geneva). 2020-10-01. Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  13. "Emmanouil Dermitzakis". scholar.google.ch. Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  14. "Ένας σημαντικός Έλληνας γενετιστής μιλά για το μοντέλο της Σουηδίας, τη νέα κανονικότητα και την έρευνα στη χώρα μας". LiFO (in Greek). 24 April 2020. Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  15. "Δερμιτζάκης Μανώλης". www.blod.gr. Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  16. "Emmanouil Dermitzakis". AGBT. Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  17. Dermitzakis, Emmanouil T.; Clark, Andrew G. (July 2002). "Evolution of transcription factor binding sites in Mammalian gene regulatory regions: conservation and turnover". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 19 (7): 1114–1121. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a004169. ISSN 0737-4038. PMID 12082130.
  18. Stranger, Barbara E.; Forrest, Matthew S.; Clark, Andrew G.; Minichiello, Mark J.; Deutsch, Samuel; Lyle, Robert; Hunt, Sarah; Kahl, Brenda; Antonarakis, Stylianos E.; Tavaré, Simon; Deloukas, Panagiotis (December 2005). "Genome-wide associations of gene expression variation in humans". PLOS Genetics. 1 (6): e78. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0010078. ISSN 1553-7404. PMC 1315281. PMID 16362079.
  19. Stranger, Barbara E.; Nica, Alexandra C.; Forrest, Matthew S.; Dimas, Antigone; Bird, Christine P.; Beazley, Claude; Ingle, Catherine E.; Dunning, Mark; Flicek, Paul; Koller, Daphne; Montgomery, Stephen (October 2007). "Population genomics of human gene expression". Nature Genetics. 39 (10): 1217–1224. doi:10.1038/ng2142. ISSN 1546-1718. PMC 2683249. PMID 17873874.
  20. Stranger, Barbara E.; Forrest, Matthew S.; Dunning, Mark; Ingle, Catherine E.; Beazley, Claude; Thorne, Natalie; Redon, Richard; Bird, Christine P.; de Grassi, Anna; Lee, Charles; Tyler-Smith, Chris (2007-02-09). "Relative impact of nucleotide and copy number variation on gene expression phenotypes". Science. 315 (5813): 848–853. Bibcode:2007Sci...315..848S. doi:10.1126/science.1136678. ISSN 1095-9203. PMC 2665772. PMID 17289997.
  21. Montgomery, Stephen B.; Sammeth, Micha; Gutierrez-Arcelus, Maria; Lach, Radoslaw P.; Ingle, Catherine; Nisbett, James; Guigo, Roderic; Dermitzakis, Emmanouil T. (2010-04-01). "Transcriptome genetics using second generation sequencing in a Caucasian population". Nature. 464 (7289): 773–777. Bibcode:2010Natur.464..773M. doi:10.1038/nature08903. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 3836232. PMID 20220756.
  22. Lappalainen, Tuuli; Sammeth, Michael; Friedländer, Marc R.; 't Hoen, Peter A. C.; Monlong, Jean; Rivas, Manuel A.; Gonzàlez-Porta, Mar; Kurbatova, Natalja; Griebel, Thasso; Ferreira, Pedro G.; Barann, Matthias (2013-09-26). "Transcriptome and genome sequencing uncovers functional variation in humans". Nature. 501 (7468): 506–511. Bibcode:2013Natur.501..506L. doi:10.1038/nature12531. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 3918453. PMID 24037378.
  23. Kilpinen, Helena; Waszak, Sebastian M.; Gschwind, Andreas R.; Raghav, Sunil K.; Witwicki, Robert M.; Orioli, Andrea; Migliavacca, Eugenia; Wiederkehr, Michaël; Gutierrez-Arcelus, Maria; Panousis, Nikolaos I.; Yurovsky, Alisa (2013-11-08). "Coordinated effects of sequence variation on DNA binding, chromatin structure, and transcription". Science. 342 (6159): 744–747. Bibcode:2013Sci...342..744K. doi:10.1126/science.1242463. ISSN 1095-9203. PMC 5502466. PMID 24136355.
  24. Waszak, Sebastian M.; Delaneau, Olivier; Gschwind, Andreas R.; Kilpinen, Helena; Raghav, Sunil K.; Witwicki, Robert M.; Orioli, Andrea; Wiederkehr, Michael; Panousis, Nikolaos I.; Yurovsky, Alisa; Romano-Palumbo, Luciana (2015-08-27). "Population Variation and Genetic Control of Modular Chromatin Architecture in Humans". Cell. 162 (5): 1039–1050. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2015.08.001. ISSN 1097-4172. PMID 26300124. S2CID 16537629.
  25. Delaneau, O.; Zazhytska, M.; Borel, C.; Giannuzzi, G.; Rey, G.; Howald, C.; Kumar, S.; Ongen, H.; Popadin, K.; Marbach, D.; Ambrosini, G. (3 May 2019). "Chromatin three-dimensional interactions mediate genetic effects on gene expression". Science. 364 (6439): eaat8266. doi:10.1126/science.aat8266. ISSN 1095-9203. PMID 31048460. S2CID 143432659.
  26. Ongen, Halit; Brown, Andrew A.; Delaneau, Olivier; Panousis, Nikolaos I.; Nica, Alexandra C.; GTEx Consortium; Dermitzakis, Emmanouil T. (December 2017). "Estimating the causal tissues for complex traits and diseases". Nature Genetics. 49 (12): 1676–1683. doi:10.1038/ng.3981. ISSN 1546-1718. PMID 29058715. S2CID 2700102.
  27. Nica, Alexandra C.; Montgomery, Stephen B.; Dimas, Antigone S.; Stranger, Barbara E.; Beazley, Claude; Barroso, Inês; Dermitzakis, Emmanouil T. (2010-04-01). "Candidate causal regulatory effects by integration of expression QTLs with complex trait genetic associations". PLOS Genetics. 6 (4): e1000895. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1000895. ISSN 1553-7404. PMC 2848550. PMID 20369022.
  28. Ongen, Halit; Andersen, Claus L.; Bramsen, Jesper B.; Oster, Bodil; Rasmussen, Mads H.; Ferreira, Pedro G.; Sandoval, Juan; Vidal, Enrique; Whiffin, Nicola; Planchon, Alexandra; Padioleau, Ismael (2014-08-07). "Putative cis-regulatory drivers in colorectal cancer". Nature. 512 (7512): 87–90. Bibcode:2014Natur.512...87O. doi:10.1038/nature13602. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 25079323. S2CID 4408628.
  29. ENCODE Project Consortium; Birney, Ewan; Stamatoyannopoulos, John A.; Dutta, Anindya; Guigó, Roderic; Gingeras, Thomas R.; Margulies, Elliott H.; Weng, Zhiping; Snyder, Michael; Dermitzakis, Emmanouil T.; Thurman, Robert E. (2007-06-14). "Identification and analysis of functional elements in 1% of the human genome by the ENCODE pilot project". Nature. 447 (7146): 799–816. Bibcode:2007Natur.447..799B. doi:10.1038/nature05874. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 2212820. PMID 17571346.
  30. International HapMap 3 Consortium; Altshuler, David M.; Gibbs, Richard A.; Peltonen, Leena; Altshuler, David M.; Gibbs, Richard A.; Peltonen, Leena; Dermitzakis, Emmanouil; Schaffner, Stephen F.; Yu, Fuli; Peltonen, Leena (2010-09-02). "Integrating common and rare genetic variation in diverse human populations". Nature. 467 (7311): 52–58. Bibcode:2010Natur.467...52T. doi:10.1038/nature09298. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 3173859. PMID 20811451.
  31. GTEx Consortium (2015-05-08). "Human genomics. The Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) pilot analysis: multitissue gene regulation in humans". Science. 348 (6235): 648–660. doi:10.1126/science.1262110. ISSN 1095-9203. PMC 4547484. PMID 25954001.
  32. "People | International Common Disease Alliance". www.icda.bio. Retrieved 2020-10-18.
  33. "Δερμιτζάκης: Με ήθελαν για διακοσμητικό στην Ερευνα και Καινοτομία". newsique.gr (in Greek). 2020-08-26. Retrieved 2020-10-18.
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