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This version of NSU News has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of NSU News, visit news.nova.edu.
This version of SharkBytes has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of SharkBytes, visit sharkbytes.nova.edu.
NSU Research Spotlight: Cardiovascular Disease
Anastasios (Tassos) Lymperopoulos, Ph.D.
Anastasios (Tassos) Lymperopoulos, Ph.D., seeks to discover new treatments for cardiovascular disease, which kills more people than cancer.
Right now, his “patients” are mice and rats. But Lymperopoulos has dedicated his professional life to the premise that cutting-edge gene therapy techniques will produce important benefits for humans.
“I have always liked science, then I got hooked on the science behind drugs. Then, in my mentor’s Philadelphia biomedical research lab, I started working on the heart,” Lymperopoulos explains. His mother died from a stroke shortly before he came to the United States from his native Greece, and this stimulated his interest.
In Philadelphia, he tested the practicality of an approach to delivering proteins to the hearts of animals through certain cell surface receptors. “It was a make-or-break moment where I would either hit a home run or reach a sudden dead end. Fortunately, I validated the concept, and this set me up for a lifetime career,” he says.
Lymperopoulos credits his mentor, Wally Koch, Ph.D., of Temple University, and his mentor’s mentor, Bob Lefkowitz, M.D., of Duke University, for his success.
“Bob Lefkowitz won the Nobel Prize in chemistry last year for discovering receptors for adrenaline and in the heart,” he says. “This is the main focus of my research.”
Isaac Newton once said that if he had seen further than others, it was by standing on the shoulders of giants. No one has learned this lesson better than Lymperopoulos.