Vasso Kostourou did his education in BSc. in Biology, University of Patras, Greece and Ph.D. at St. George’s Medical School, Department of BiochemistryImmunology, University of London, UK.   He has extended his valuable service in Research Fellow at Institute of Cancer for 3 years and has been a recipient of many award and grants. Currently, he is working as a Researcher C, Head of the Laboratory of endothelial biology and Pathophysiology, Biomedical Sciences Research Center ‘Alexander Fleming’. His research interests reflect in his wide range of publications in various national and international journals.   

 "The main research interest of our recently established group is to study the molecular mechanisms that control endothelial cell function during blood vessel development. Our approach utilizes genetically modified mouse models and various cellular and molecular assays in primary endothelial cells and ex vivo tissues to elucidate the function of adhesion dynamics in vascular morphogenesis during embryonic development and in pathological conditions such as cancer. Major emphasis is placed on identifying the functional relationships among intracellular adhesion proteins and their role in cell adhesion remodelling and cell migration during angiogenesis. In recent studies, we have established the role of integrins and focal adhesion kinase (FAK) in pathological angiogenesis. Our ongoing projects are focusing on intracellular adhesion molecules that associate with integrins and provide a molecular link to cytoskeleton such as Talin, ILK and PINCH. Recently we demonstrated thefunctional requirement of Talin1 in embryonic vascular development. We aim to dissect further the molecular mechanisms of intracellular adhesion protein function during physiological and pathological angiogenesis"