Prof. Dr. Spandidos Demetrios

Dr. Spandidos Demetrios
Medical, School, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece
Spandidos Publications, Athens, Greece and London, UK

Author: D.A. Spandidos
Medical School, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece

There is no doubt that the discovery of cellular oncogenes changed our views on the most devastating of human diseases: cancer. That is the reason why it is considered the most significant discovery of the 20th century. From the time of Hippocrates, the father of medicine who first described cancer, until the discovery of cellular oncogenes, very little progress had been made concerning an explanation to the causes of cancer, its diagnosis and treatment. The fact that under the category of cancer approximately 200 forms of diseases are included affecting almost every part of the human body, made it difficult to pinpoint the cause as well as control its result. However, the development of a variety of technological achievements, namely tissue culture, recombinant DNA technology, gene transfer techniques and so on, made the ideological approach feasible. By using the above techniques, it was possible to isolate human oncogenes; in other words, the genes responsible for the creation of benign or malignant growth of human tumours (oncos). The role of oncogenes in cutaneous melanoma will be discussed.
Spandidos Publications was established in 1991 with the International Journal of Oncology. Since then, another 11 journals have been established, which are: Oncology Reports, the International Journal of Molecular Medicine, Oncology Letters, Molecular Medicine Reports, Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine, Molecular and Clinical Oncology, Biomedical Reports, World Academy of Sciences Journal, the International Journal of Functional Nutrition, International Journal of Epigenetics and Medicine International. The aims and scopes of these journals will be discussed during the conference.

Scurt CV

Professor Demetrios A. Spandidos obtained his BSc in Chemistry from the University of Thessaloniki, Greece, his PhD in Biochemistry from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and his DSc in Genetics from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Pathology (in Clinical Virology) (FRCPath), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Health (FRSH), a Fellow of the International Society of Hematology (FISH), a Fellow of the American Society of Angiology (FASA), a corresponding member of the National Academy of Buenos Aires, Argentina and an elected member of Academia Europeae (MAE). He is an Honorary Doctor of the Universities of Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca in Romania. He worked at the Theagenio Cancer Institute in Thessaloniki, the Hellenic Anticancer Hospital, the Hellenic Pasteur Institute and the National Hellenic Research Foundation in Athens, and the Medical School and University Hospital in Heraklion, Greece. His main fields of research are in the areas of Molecular Oncology, Biochemistry, Genetics and Virology, with the discovery of cellular oncogenes by gene transfer being his most prominent achievement. He has published over 1,000 papers in recognized journals, he has written 9 books and he has taught in many universities in various countries, including Greece, Italy, Japan, USA and China. He founded Spandidos Publications that includes 12 international journals and has organized 63 international conferences in Greece and abroad. He is Professor Emeritus at the Medical School of the University of Crete, Greece. An updated list of publications and citations can be found in Google Scholar.