Research Junction: Connecting Faculty Across Campus

1. What is your educational background?

I obtained my Bachelor’s in Biology and my Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Evolution from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece; then, I came to the US, first for my postdoctoral studies at the State University of New York at Albany, NY, and then as a Research Associate at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL, where I became specialized in the Cellular and Molecular biology of Cancer.

2. Where is your hometown?

I was born and raised in Veroia, a relatively small town of ~50,000 inhabitants in Northern Greece, 50 miles west of Thessaloniki and 300 miles north of Athens. It is adjacent to Vergina, the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Macedon, where the tomb of King Philip II, Alexander the Great’s father, was found - in fact, it was discovered as I was growing up there as a kid!

3. Why did you choose MUSC?

MUSC has a unique combination of all the things I was looking for to establish my independent lab: it is big enough to include a broad spectrum of experts, facilities and resources, allowing me to fully develop our research, but also compact enough to enable easy and immediate access to all these resources. Above all, it encompasses a highly collaborative environment, which is how I envision and like to work, but also how I believe science thrives. I have to say that at no other stage in my career had I experienced the enthusiastic and unabridged support that I encountered here at MUSC, at all levels. In addition, the quality of life in Charleston and the Lowcountry is probably unmatched across the country and a perfect environment both for myself and for my family.

4. What are your current research interests and how did you become interested in this field?

Work in my lab investigates the cross-talk between cell-cell adhesion complexes with the RNA interference (RNAi) machinery, miRNAs, mRNAs, lncRNAs and other RNA-binding proteins, as well as the implications of these interactions in cell homeostasis and disease. We came across this novel and exciting mechanism a few years ago, as we were trying to explain conflicting findings regarding the role of cadherin complexes, which are essential for normal cell-cell adhesion, in tumorigenesis. The unexpected discovery of the association of RNA-binding complexes with cadherin junctions in well-differentiated epithelial cells provided an explanation to this conundrum and a direct link between the status of cell-cell adhesion with post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression and, eventually, with cell behavior. It also opened up numerous avenues of investigation and introduced a swath of new questions: what are the molecular underpinnings of this mechanism? how do these complexes assemble and are regulated? what are the key components involved, including specific coding and non-coding RNA species? what is the contribution of this mechanism to cell behavior and disease? These are all questions that we are currently working in my lab to fully expand and eventually address.

5. What has been your biggest scientific contribution to date?

I believe it was indeed the discovery of the association and localization of the RNAi machinery, RNA binding complexes, and numerous RNAs with cell-cell junctions in epithelial cells. It was a finding that never ceased to intrigue me and that we are more excited than ever to further interrogate in my lab.

6. Is there a scientific area/field you would like to know more about?

As we are trying to address the questions I mentioned above, we are becoming more interested in two major directions: 1) what is the molecular and biophysical basis of the protein-RNA interactions we are witnessing at cell-cell junctions? 2) how do our findings translate into human disease? Regarding the first direction, we are actively collaborating with molecular and RNA biologists on campus, such as Drs. Je-Hyun Yoon and Vamsi Gangaraju, to delve deeper and decipher the roles of particular proteins and RNAs, as well as their structures that enable this unique localization and function of RNA complexes at cell-cell junctions. Regarding the second direction, we are currently investigating the role of this mechanism in colon cancer; for this, we have the ample support of MUSC’s COBRE in Digestive and Liver Disease and of the Digestive Disease Research Core Center, as well as of several MUSC’s experts in the field, such as Drs. Kristin Wallace and Silvia Guglietta. 

7. Would you like to connect with colleagues within a certain field? If so, what field/area?

Our current data suggest that cell-cell junction - RNA interactions are a broad characteristic of epithelial cells and tissues. Therefore, although our research stems from our interest in cancer biology and particularly in colon cancer, it is likely that this mechanism has repercussions in other types of epithelial cancers or other diseases of epithelial origin, beyond cancer, particularly those where cell-cell adhesion or the epithelial barrier function are compromised. We envision expanding our area of investigation into these directions soon and we look forward to working with colleagues and forging collaborations to address these emerging themes.

8. Please share one interesting detail about yourself.

This is difficult - I am probably pretty boring! Maybe that I love reading about astrophysics, cosmology, time travel, or studying chess in my “free” time - and learning things of all sort.

9. Who would play you in a movie about your life?

I would love to get Tom Hanks, Christian Bale, or Matt Damon, but it is far more likely I will get Johnny Galecki (“Leonard” from the “Big Bang Theory”) and even more likely I will end up with Danny DeVito - and none of the above would really get excited by the script!

10. What’s the best advice you were ever given?

My father used to tell me to “always stay calm”, no matter what. Indeed, that served me well and, actually, it costed me whenever I lost my temper and couldn’t think clearly. The best scientific advice I ever got was the consensus of many people’s direct or indirect influence: “to think outside the box”; I have found no other principle more important in science, than the latter. The best most recent advice was given by my 9-year old daughter: “don’t be too uptight, live your life, eat food in the living room”. Can’t beat that last one, either….

Make a Connection

Drop Dr. Antonis Kourtidis an email at kourtidi@musc.edu.