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Dr Ilias Kounatidis

Profile summary

Professional biography

Dr Ilias Kounatidis received a Bachelor in Biology (2005) and a PhD in Microbiology and Cytogenetics (2009) from the School of Biology, at Aristotle University of Thesalloniki (AUTH) in Greece. The main focuses of his doctoral thesis were the analysis of the microbiota of flies with agricultural or/and medical importance and the evaluation of the toxicity and the antimutagenic properties of essential oils and various grades of olive oils using Drosophila melanogaster as a research model.

Between 2010 and 2016 Dr Kounatidis was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford working:  i) across host-pathogen interaction topics involving Drosophila models as a host for the study of human pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans and Candida glabrata spp., ii) age dependent neurodegenaration topics using healthy ageing Drosophila models and iii) microbiota structure in conditions that resemble Intestinal Bowel Diseases (IBD) using hyper active immunity Drosophila flies as a host.   

From 2017 to 2020 Dr Kounatidis was a Beamline Scientist in the biological cryo-imaging group in Diamond Light Source (UK's National Synchrotron). His main research focus was the development, evaluation and following application across biomedical projects of advanced correlative cryo-microscopy schemes; combining super resolution imaging with cryo soft X-ray tomography and cryo-electron microscopy techniques. 

Dr Kounatidis holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education (PCTHE) from the Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development (OCSLD) and a Master in Education (strand Leadership and Management) from the School of Education from Oxford Brookes University. 

He is a Fellow of the Royal Microscopy Society (FRMS) and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and serves (among his colleague Dr Laura Lopez) as a cordinator of the Neuroscience research cluster in the School of Life & Health Sciences (LHCS) in Open University. 

Research interests

  • Host pathogen interaction topics with a special interest on fungal pathogenesis (Candida spp.)
  • Development and application of correlative microscopy schemes in biomedical topics.
  • Study of inflammageing phenomenon using invertebrate models.

 

Publications

The utility of Drosophila melanogaster as a fungal infection model (2024)
Mpamhanga, Chengetai D. and Kounatidis, Ilias
Frontiers in Immunology, 15, Article 1349027


Systematic analysis of YFP traps reveals common mRNA/protein discordance in neural tissues (2023)
Titlow, Joshua S.; Kiourlappou, Maria; Palanca, Ana; Lee, Jeffrey Y.; Gala, Dalia S.; Ennis, Darragh; Yu, Joyce J.S.; Young, Florence L.; Susano Pinto, David Miguel; Garforth, Sam; Francis, Helena S.; Strivens, Finn; Mulvey, Hugh; Dallman-Porter, Alex; Thornton, Staci; Arman, Diana; Millard, Marissa J.; Järvelin, Aino I.; Thompson, Mary Kay; Sargent, Martin; Kounatidis, Ilias; Parton, Richard M.; Taylor, Stephen and Davis, Ilan
Journal of Cell Biology, 222, Article e202205129(6)


A genetic screen in Drosophila reveals the role of fucosylation in host susceptibility to Candida infection (2022-05-22)
Glittenberg, Marcus; Kounatidis, Ilias; Atilano, Magda and Ligoxygakis, Petros
Disease Models & Mechanisms, 15, Article dmm049218(5)


Correlative cryo-imaging of the cellular universe with soft X-rays and laser light used to track F-actin structures in mammalian cells (2021-12-01)
Koronfel, Mohamed; Kounatidis, Ilias; Mwangangi, Dennis; Vyas, Nina; Okolo, Chidinma; Jadhav, Archana; Fish, Thomas; Chotchuang, Phatcharin; Schulte, Albert; Robinson, Robert and Harkiolaki, Maria
Acta Crystallographica Section D, 77(12) (pp. 1479-1485)


Single Cell Cryo-Soft X-ray Tomography Shows That Each Chlamydia Trachomatis Inclusion Is a Unique Community of Bacteria (2021)
Phillips, Patrick; Parkhurst, James M.; Kounatidis, Ilias; Okolo, Chidinma; Fish, Thomas M.; Naismith, James H.; Walsh, Martin A.; Harkiolaki, Maria and Dumoux, Maud
Life, 11, Article 842(8)


Correlative multi-scale cryo-imaging unveils SARS-CoV-2 assembly and egress (2021)
Mendonça, Luiza; Howe, Andrew; Gilchrist, James B.; Sheng, Yuewen; Sun, Dapeng; Knight, Michael L.; Zanetti-Domingues, Laura C.; Bateman, Benji; Krebs, Anna-Sophia; Chen, Long; Radecke, Julika; Li, Vivian D.; Ni, Tao; Kounatidis, Ilias; Koronfel, Mohamed A.; Szynkiewicz, Marta; Harkiolaki, Maria; Martin-Fernandez, Marisa L.; James, William and Zhang, Peijun
Nature Communications, 12, Article 4629


Cryo-Structured Illumination Microscopic Data Collection from Cryogenically Preserved Cells (2021)
Vyas, Nina; Perry, Nina; Okolo, Chidinma A.; Kounatidis, Ilias; Fish, Thomas M.; Nahas, Kamal L.; Jadhav, Archana; Koronfel, Mohamed A.; Groen, Johannes; Pereiro, Eva; Dobbie, Ian M. and Harkiolaki, Maria
Journal of Visualized Experiments, Article e62274(171)


A 3D Cartographic Description of the Cell by Cryo Soft X-ray Tomography (2021)
Groen, Johannes; Sorrentino, Andrea; Aballe, Lucía; Oliete, Robert; Valcárcel, Ricardo; Okolo, Chidinma; Kounatidis, Ilias; Harkiolaki, Maria; Pérez-Berná, Ana Joaquina and Pereiro, Eva
Journal of Visualized Experiments, Article e62190(169)


3D Correlative Cryo-Structured Illumination Fluorescence and Soft X-ray Microscopy Elucidates Reovirus Intracellular Release Pathway (2020-07)
Kounatidis, Ilias; Megan, Stanifer; Michael, Philips; Perrine, Paul-Gilloteaux; Xavier, Heiligenstein; Hongchang, Wang; Chidinma, Okolo; Thomas, Fish; Matthew, Spink; David, Stuart; Ilan, Davis; Steeve, Boulant; Jonathan, Grimes; Ian, Dobbie and Maria, Harkiolaki
Cell, 182(2) (pp. 515-530)


Nuclear Factor-Kappa B and Alzheimer Disease, Unifying Genetic and Environmental Risk Factors from Cell to Humans (2017-12)
Jones, Simon Vann and Kounatidis, Ilias
Frontiers in Immunology, 8, Article 1805


Interaction Between Familial Transmission and a Constitutively Active Immune System Shapes Gut Microbiota in Drosophila melanogaster (2017-06)
Mistry, Rupal; Kounatidis, Ilias and Ligoxygakis, Petros
Genetics, 206(2) (pp. 889-904)


NF-κB Immunity in the Brain Determines Fly Lifespan in Healthy Aging and Age-Related Neurodegeneration (2017)
Kounatidis, Ilias; Chtarbanova, Stanislava; Cao, Yang; Hayne, Margaret; Jayanth, Dhruv; Ganetzky, Barry and Ligoxygakis, Petros
Cell Reports, 19(4) (pp. 836-848)


Exploring interactions between pathogens and the Drosophila gut (2016)
Mistry, Rupal; Kounatidis, Ilias and Ligoxygakis, Petros
Developmental & Comparative Immunology, 64 (pp. 3-10)


Genetic and cytogenetic analysis of the fruit fly Rhagoletis cerasi (Diptera: Tephritidae) (2008-07)
Kounatidis, Ilias; Papadopoulos, Nikolao; Bourtzis, Kostas and Mavragani-Tsipidou, Penelope
Genome, 51(7) (pp. 479-491)


Correlative Cryo-imaging Using Soft X-Ray Tomography for the Study of Virus Biology in Cells and Tissues (2023)
Jadhav, Archana and Kounatidis, Ilias
In: Vijayakrishnan, Swetha; Yaming, Jiu and Robin, Harris eds. Virus Infected Cells. Subcellular Biochemistry (pp. 169-196)
ISBN : 978-3-031-40085-8 | Publisher : Springer