Anastasios Pavlopoulos, Principal Researcher at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of the Foundation for Research and Technology–Hellas (IMBB-FORTH) has been awarded a Research Grant from the 2023 Human Frontiers Science Program. Mr Pavlopoulos is the Principal Investigator (PI) of an international team with co-PIs Dr. Liangqi (Frank) Xie at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in USA and Dr. Léo Guignard at the Aix-Marseille University in France. The team will receive $1.2 million in funding for three years to study the cellular and molecular basis of bilaterian symmetry.
Bilateral symmetry is a hallmark of most animals. The external left and right sides of bilaterians develop separately but somehow manage to produce symmetric matching halves, which is vital for proper function, such as symmetrical limbs for locomotion. Bilateral symmetry is astonishing considering the number of constituent cells, the long developmental times and the pervasive occurrence of destabilising factors. How animals build and maintain bilaterally symmetric tissue architectures remains a mystery. The project will adopt a holistic strategy bridging the molecular, cellular and tissular scales in live developing embryos to elucidate the control mechanisms that establish their bilateral symmetry during normal embryogenesis and restore it during healing.
Together with his team at IMBB-FORTH and collaborators, Anastasios Pavlopoulos will integrate experimental and computational frameworks to understand how the information encoded in the genome instructs cells to divide, change shape or position to sculpt correctly proportioned matching halves. These studies will resolve how tissue-level patterns emerge from cell-level properties. They will also reveal how autonomous mechanisms in each side are combined with feedback mechanisms between sides to coordinate growth and promote symmetry. Finally, they will provide a mechanistic understanding for dysmorphic phenotypes, such as craniofacial asymmetries that are among the most common human birth defects.
Anastasios Pavlopoulos
Anastasios Pavlopoulos completed his Bachelor’s degree at the University of Patras, his Master’s degree at the University of Crete and his PhD degree at IMBB-FORTH and the University of Crete. He conducted postdoctoral research at Cambridge University in the UK and at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Germany. In 2013, he started his independent research as a fellow at the HHMI Janelia Research Campus in USA, and as of 2019 he is a group leader at IMBB-FORTH.
(From a FORTH press release)
The HFSPO
The International Human Frontier Science Program Organization (HFSPO) is a non-profit organisation, based in Strasbourg, France, which funds basic research in life sciences. The HFSPO was established in 1989 and since 1990, 7500 awards have been made to researchers from over 70 countries. Of these, 28 HFSP awardees have gone on to win the Nobel Prize for their scientific work.
HFSPO receives financial support from the governments or research councils of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, UK and USA, as well as from the European Commission. Research Grants are awarded for novel collaborations involving extensive cooperation among teams of scientists working in different countries and in different disciplines.