Dr Vassilia Tamamouna, a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for the Study of Haematological and Other Malignancies of Greece’s Karaiskakio Foundation and a research associate at the University of Cambridge, is the 2022 winner of the ‘Cyprus Research Award – Distinguished Researcher’.
Dr Tamamouna’s prize is in the category of “Life Sciences”, Philenews also reports.
The “Cyprus Research Award–Distinguished Researcher” is granted to excellent
scientists with extensive research experience, who conduct research in Cyprus and
can demonstrate recent, significant and internationally recognized research results.
The Award aims to appraise and promote the work and personality of these distinguished
scientists, who honour Cyprus through their high-quality research and its impact.
Dr Tamamuna, a member of the Centre for the Study of Haematological and Other Malignancies since February 2021, aims to discover therapeutic targets against cancer by establishing important technologies which she makes available to both the local and international scientific community.
Among others, it established the CRISPR-Cas9 interventional genomics technology at the Center aiming to discover cancer vulnerabilities and find new treatments.
Her research focuses on the mechanisms of carcinogenesis with emphasis on tumor angiogenesis and metastasis. She focuses on the study of the processes of metastatic breast cancer to the lung and the role of cellular senescence in the development and progression of leukaemia.
She told Philenews that she has always been fascinated by the function of the human body, the importance of understanding it, as well as emerging diseases and so many environmental factors that negatively affect human health, the need to clarify biological functions, chemical reactions, and the mechanisms that govern the human body.
“Therefore, I could not think of a better field of study than a degree in biological sciences,” she also said.
