KEYWORDS
RNA editing
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RNA methylation
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cardiovascular disease
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inflammation
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RNA metabolism
Konstantinos Stellos, MD, FESC, FAHA, is Professor and Chair of Cardiovascular Medicine and Epitranscriptomics at the Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom. Dr. Stellos received his medical degree from the Democritus University of Thrace, Greece, his doctoral degree with summa cum laude from the University of Tübingen, Germany, and his habilitation from the Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany. He trained in internal medicine and cardiology at the University Hospital of Tübingen and the Goethe University Hospital Frankfurt, followed by postdoctoral work at the Institute of Cardiovascular Regeneration, Goethe University Frankfurt. Dr. Stellos’ research (www.StellosLab.com) focuses on inflammation and RNA editing in cardiovascular diseases and seeks to discover novel upstream disease mechanisms that may serve as therapeutic targets. His expertise includes the discovery and use of novel disease biomarkers for risk stratification of patients with coronary artery disease. His research has been awarded with numerous prizes including the Else Kröner Memorial scholarship 2014 by the Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung (Foundation), the German Heart Foundation Wilhem P. Winterstein Prize 2014, the German Cardiac Society Oskar-Lapp Research Prize 2017 and a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant 2017.
The Konstantinos Stellos Lab studies the interplay between RNA-based mechanisms and cardiovascular resilience and disease with the scope to develop new strategies to address the residual risk in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
Our laboratory currently aims to discover the epitranscriptomic mechanisms that are critically involved in RNA metabolism and vascular biology, to develop specific therapies for the treatment of heart disease, and to define the prognostic value of novel disease biomarkers for risk stratification and cardiovascular prevention.
We are using high throughput deep sequencing, molecular and cellular biology approaches, and mouse disease models to investigate at a single nucleotide resolution the role of novel RNA metabolism mechanisms in gene expression, and cellular and organ function in cardiovascular homeostasis and disease. The relevance of our bench findings is further investigated in clinical studies involving patients with subclinical and manifested cardiovascular disease.
1. Stellos K1, Gatsiou A, Stamatelopoulos K, Perisic L, John D, Lunella FF, Jae N, Rossbach O, Amrhein C, Sigala F, Boon RA, Fürtig B, Manavski Y, You X, Uchida S, Keller T, Boeckel JN, Franco-Cedera A, Maegdefessel L, Chen W, Schwalbe H, Bindereif A, Eriksson P, Hedin U, Zeiher AM, Dimmeler S1. Adenosine-to-inosine RNA editing controls cathepsin S expression in atherosclerosis by enabling HuR-mediated posttranscriptional regulation. Nature Medicine 2016; 22:1140-1150. 1Corresponding authors
2. Stamatelopoulos K, Mueller-Hennessen M, Georgiopoulos G, Sachse M, Boeddinghaus J, Sopova K, Gatsiou A, Amrhein C, Biener M, Vafaie M, Athanasouli F, Stakos D, Pateras K, Twerenbold R, Badertscher P, Nestelberger T, Dimmeler S, Katus HA, Zeiher AM, Mueller C, Giannitsis E, Stellos K. Amyloid-β (1-40) and Mortality in Patients With Non-ST-Segment Elevation Acute Coronary Syndrome: A Cohort Study. Ann Intern Med. 2018; 168(12):855-865.
3. Stamatelopoulos K, Pol CJ, Ayers C, Georgiopoulos G, Gatsiou A, Brilakis ES, Khera A, Drosatos K, de Lemos J, Stellos K. Amyloid-beta (1-40) peptide and subclinical cardiovascular disease in the general population: the Dallas Heart Study. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2018; 72:1060-61.
4. Gatsiou A, Stellos K. Dawn of Epitranscriptomic Medicine. Circ Genom Precis Med. 2018 Sep;11(9):e001927
5. Gatsiou A, Vlachogiannis N, Lunella FF, Sachse M, Stellos K. Adenosine-to-Inosine RNA Editing in Health and Disease. Antioxid Redox Signal. 2018 Sep 20;29(9):846-863
