Christos Louis, nicknamed Kitsos, is a Greek Molecular Geneticist. He graduated from the Medical School of the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wor ...

in 1974 and joined the team of Prof. C.E. Sekeris, first at Marburg and then at the

German Cancer Research Center The German Cancer Research Center (known as the Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum or simply DKFZ in German) is a national cancer research center based in Heidelberg, Germany. It is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, ...

Heidelberg, obtaining his doctoral degree in

Cell biology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living and ...

from

Heidelberg University } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

in 1977. His work focuses on

Genomics Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, three-dim ...

and

Bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, in particular when the data sets are large and complex. As an interdisciplinary field of science, bioinformatics combi ...

of insects and vector-borne/

tropical diseases Tropical diseases are diseases that are prevalent in or unique to tropical and subtropical regions. The diseases are less prevalent in temperate climates, due in part to the occurrence of a cold season, which controls the insect population by forci ...

. He performed postdoctoral research as an

EMBO Embo ( gd, Eurabol, IPA: �iaɾəpɔɫ̪ is a village in the Highland Council Area in Scotland and the former postal county of Sutherland, about north-northeast of Dornoch. On 16 July 1988, Embo declared itself independent from the rest of the ...

fellow with

Walter J. Gehring Walter Jakob Gehring (20 March 1939 – 29 May 2014) was a Swiss developmental biologist who was a professor at the Biozentrum Basel of the University of Basel, Switzerland. He obtained his PhD at the University of Zurich in 1965 and after two ...

at the

Biozentrum University of Basel The Biozentrum of the University of Basel specializes in basic molecular and biomedical research and teaching. Research includes the areas of cell growth and development, infection biology, neurobiology, structural biology and biophysics, a ...

(1978-1979) and Paul Schedl at the Department of Biology at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

(1980-1983).

Fotis Kafatos Fotis Constantine Kafatos ( el, Φώτης Κ. Καφάτος; 16 April 1940 – 18 November 2017) was a Greek biologist. Between 2007-2010 he was the founding president of the European Research Council (ERC). He chaired the ERC Scientific Coun ...

invited him to join the staff of th
IMBB
of the, then, Research Centre of Crete in 1983; he subsequently became a member of the Faculty of the Department of Biology at the

University of Crete The University of Crete (UoC; Greek: Πανεπιστήμιο Κρήτης) is a multi-disciplinary, research-oriented institution in Crete, Greece, located in the cities of Rethymno (official seat) and Heraklion, and one of the country's most aca ...

where he was promoted to Full Professor in 1989. During his tenure he was the Chairman of his Department for a total of 11 years. Later, he was a founding member of the University of Crete's Programme on Bioethics. He retired from the University in 2014 although, as an emeritus, he kept his appointment as Research Staff at the IMBB, now an Institute of the

Foundation for Research & Technology – Hellas The Foundation for Research & Technology – Hellas (FORTH) ( el, Ίδρυμα Τεχνολογίας και Έρευνας - ΙΤΕ) is a research center in Greece, supervised by the Ministry for Education through itGeneral Secretariat for Resea ...

. From December 2012 till April 2015 he was also the acting Head of Bioinformatics at the Centre for Functional Genomics at the Dept. of Experimental Medicine of the

University of Perugia University of Perugia (Italian ''Università degli Studi di Perugia'') is a public-owned university based in Perugia, Italy. It was founded in 1308, as attested by the Bull issued by Pope Clement V certifying the birth of the Studium Generale. Th ...

. He has served on a number of national (Greek) and international committees and boards, and he is a member of

. He was a member of several standing and ad hoc committees of the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

/TDR, including its Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC). Kitsos Louis has been a member of the editorial boards of several scientific journals and has co-authored more than 170 scientific publications. His research interests include: * Insect Molecular Genetics with emphasis on

;

genome sequencing Whole genome sequencing (WGS), also known as full genome sequencing, complete genome sequencing, or entire genome sequencing, is the process of determining the entirety, or nearly the entirety, of the DNA sequence of an organism's genome at a ...

and post-genomic expression analysis. He was a member of the European Drosophila Genome Project and the Anopheles Genome Project. * Study of the molecular interactions between

Anopheles ''Anopheles'' () is a genus of mosquito first described and named by J. W. Meigen in 1818. About 460 species are recognised; while over 100 can transmit human malaria, only 30–40 commonly transmit parasites of the genus ''Plasmodium'', which c ...

and the

Malaria parasite ''Plasmodium'' is a genus of unicellular eukaryotes that are obligate parasites of vertebrates and insects. The life cycles of ''Plasmodium'' species involve development in a blood-feeding insect host which then injects parasites into a vert ...

. * Development of biomedical ontologies, especially for medical entomology, and databases. With his colleagues in Crete, he developed AnoDB/AnoBase, the first genetic databases for Anopheles, which later evolved into

VectorBase VectorBase is one of the five Bioinformatics Resource Centers (BRC) funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is an agency of the United States Departm ...

. * Epidemiology and biology of vector-borne diseases. In his youth, Kitsos Louis was a competition swimmer for

Panathinaikos A.O. Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos ( el, Παναθηναϊκός Αθλητικός Όμιλος, literally in English: "Panathenaic Athletic Club" or Panathinaikos A.C.), also known simply as Panathinaikós , is a major Greek multi-sport club ba ...

having won several Greek national championships.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Louis, Christos 1948 births Living people Greek geneticists Scientists from Athens University of Marburg alumni Academic staff of the University of Perugia