Dimitris Anastassiou

Some of these biomolecular data mining techniques identify signatures of mutually associated features pointing to the core of the underlying mechanism. Several among these signatures (“attractor metagenes”) were found to be nearly identical in multiple cancer types, suggesting that they represent biomolecular events of cancer in general. One of his recent research topics focuses on analyzing single-cell gene expression data to scrutinize tumor heterogeneity and rare cell subpopulations, such as particular types of cancer stem cells that could result in increased resistance to therapy, and understanding the underlying regulatory mechanisms and their potential inhibition, to be validated experimentally. Such analysis has the potential to identify mechanisms by which the presence of malignant cells results in the recruitment of particular immune cell types activated in various ways, with applications in selecting optimum cancer immunotherapy. In addition to cancer, he is working on data mining of biomolecular datasets from other diseases, such as psychiatric disorders. His previous research was in the area of video technology. He is author of patents accepted as essential for the implementation of several international standards, such as MPEG-2, used in digital television transmission.

He received a B.S. from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, followed by an M.S. and a Ph.D. (1979) in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley.   He is an IEEE Fellow, a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the recipient of an IBM Outstanding Innovation Award, a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, and a Great Teacher Award from the Society of Columbia Graduates.