Christos Delidakis

Biography

Multicellularity is based on cell communication for the correct allocation of cell fates and the maintenance of tissue homeostasis. We study cellular behaviour in the context of developing animal tissues, trying to understand how external signals interface with cell-intrinsic processes, primarily transcription. Our main areas of focus are: (a) the transcriptional regulation of neural development and its interface with Notch signalling and (b) the mechanism of Notch activation by its ligands. Our main model system is the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster, which enables us to use the most sophisticated molecular genetic technologies available today. Selected Publications More Publications Delidakis C, Monastirioti M, Magadi SS. (2014) E(spl): genetic, developmental, and evolutionary aspects of a group of invertebrate Hes proteins with close ties to Notch signaling. Curr Top Dev Biol. 110: 217-62. Kux K, Kiparaki M, Delidakis C. (2013) The two Tribolium E(spl) genes show evolutionarily conserved expression and function during embryonic neurogenesis. Mech. Dev. 130: 207-225. Monastirioti M, Giagtzoglou N, Koumbanakis K.A, Zacharioudaki E, Deligiannaki M, Wech I, Almeida M, Preiss A, Bray S, Delidakis C. (2010) Drosophila Hey is a target of Notch in asymmetric divisions during embryonic and larval neurogenesis. Development 137: 191-201.

Research Interest

The nervous system contains a large number of cells of diverse specializations; the vast majority of these cells derive from asymmetric cell divisions of neural stem cells (called neuroblasts in Drosophila). bHLH transcription factors play crucial roles in the biology of neural stem cells and in this context we study bHLH proteins belonging to two classes: the proneural activators and the “Orange” (or "Hes/ Hey") repressors. Many of the bHLH-O repressors are transcriptional targets of Notch in a broad range of biological processes. One of our areas of interest is how Notch signalling is sequentially redeployed in various steps of neural development. Notch is a broadly used cell signalling pathway dating back to the earliest metazoans. As both the Notch receptor and its two ligands, Delta and Serrate, are transmembrane proteins, this pathway is cell-contact mediated and serves to allocate cell fates and behaviours in many tissues and at many developmental stages. Consequently, its deregulation is implicated in a variety of diseases in humans, for example cancer and ischemic stroke.