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Congratulations to Vasiliki Delitsikou for her excellent thesis defence

On August 26th 2019, Vasiliki Delitsikou successfully defended her doctoral thesis entitled “Tubular toxicity of proteinuria in Chronic Kidney Disease”.

 

Vasiliki Delitsikou joined the laboratory of Prof. Sophie DE SEIGNEUX in September 2015, where she worked on the role of a protein called Klotho in Chronic Kidney Disease. A reduced production of this protein has been observed in patients with Chronic Kidney Disease, but its mechanism of action remains not fully understood. Using both cell lines and mice, Vasiliki highlighted how Klotho downregulation by albuminuria is dependent on ATF3 and ATF4 transcription factors and endoplasmic reticulum stress. This research was conducted in collaboration with two USA research groups, the laboratory of Jeffrey Miner and of Carmela Abraham, and should be soon available in a paper as first author.

In addition, she started to investigate the 24p3r receptor, its role in the development of fibrosis in Chronic Kidney Disease and its possible interaction with Klotho, in collaboration with the group of Professor Frank Thevenod from Germany.

Her research projects allowed her to win the prize of the best presentation in the TRENAL-NCCR Kidney.CH Summer School in September 2018 and the poster prize from the Swiss Society of Nephrology in December 2018. Finally, Vasiliki took part in the department life as a representative of the PHYM association of young researchers.

 

In the future, Vasiliki plans to finish the ongoing project about the 24p3r receptor before trying to head toward the industry. We wish her all the best for her career!

 

 

 

 

Posted by: Véronique Rosset

4 Oct 2019

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