Current Position

Education

BSc in Physics, Department of Physics, University of Cyprus (2012) 
PhD in Cancer Biophysics, Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Cyprus, (2016) 
 

Research Interests

•    Study of the mechanical forces generated during the growth of tumors using experimental methods in mouse tumor models and mathematical modelling.
•    Investigate how mechanical forces influence tumor pathophysiology and the delivery of chemotherapy, nanomedicine and Immunotherapy
•    Development of novel therapeutic strategies to tame these forces, improve tumor blood vessel functionality and enhance therapeutic outcomes in many cancers.
•    Biomechanical characterization of solid tumors and other biological tissues.
 

Biography

Dr. Fotios Mpekris earned a BS degree (with an excellent GPA) in Physics from the University of Cyprus in 2012 and the same year, he joined with a scholarship the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the at the University of Cyprus and the Cancer Biophysics Laboratory in particular, as a PhD student. For the needs of his doctoral studies, he was trained as a biomedical engineer and developed a remarkably interdisciplinary background and expertise in mathematical modeling, experimental training on the biomechanical characterization of solid tumors and other biological tissues and polymers, in murine tumor models preparation, small laboratory animal handling and surgical procedures, as well as in anticancer drug treatments. Additionally, he has gained profound knowledge of tumor biology as well as ultrasound imaging techniques in small laboratory animals, including shear wave elastography and contrast-enhanced ultrasound. Furthermore, he has expertise in bioluminescence and fluorescence imaging on animals and tissue specimens for preclinical research and for the in vivo detection of nano-drugs and metastasis in tumors. He defended his PhD thesis in November 2016, and since then with funding coming mostly from his own grants, he had been a postdoctoral fellow at the Cancer Biophysics Laboratory and a part time lecturer at the University of Cyprus and the University of Nicosia until October 2023. In 2023, he secured a highly selective research grant by the European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant, MMSCancer, 1.5M euros, started at November 2023) and he took over a faculty position as a Research Assistant Professor at University of Cyprus since April 2025. During his research career, Dr. Mpekris has secured 1.9M euros in research funding as a Principal Investigator. The implementation of his research has led to the publication of a remarkably large number of articles in high impact journals and the development of scientific expertise that is internationally competitive. He has co-authored 50 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals (19 as a first author and 6 as corresponding author, h-index=22, >2,800 citations, Google Scholar). Additionally, he has co-authored 27 papers and/or abstracts in referred conference proceedings and has given 17 oral presentations in international conferences. As a recognition of this scientific contribution, Dr. Mpekris has been awarded the Young Researcher Award by the Reasearch and Innovation Foundation of Cyprus in 2023 as well as the Youth Researcher Award in Sciences by the Youth Board of Cyprus in 2024.