Current Position

Associate Scientist, Neurogenetics Department

The Cyprus Institute of Neurology & Genetics 

Education

• PhD in Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece and the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics (2013). Thesis title: “Characterization of mutations that cause the development of spinocerebellar ataxia in humans”.
• BSc in Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece (2005).

• Associate Faculty, Cyprus School of Molecular Medicine (2013 – present).
• Teaching Assistant in the course “Methodologies and Technologies applied in Medical Genetics” of the Postgraduate program (MSc & PhD) in Medical Genetics (collaboration of the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics & the University of Cyprus) (2010-2012).

Research Interests

• Identification of Neurodegenerative diseases and Type 2 Diabetes associated genes and risk factors.
• Understanding molecular mechanisms that lead to pathogenesis and disease.
• Contribution towards the identification of disease biomarkers and the development of more effective therapies for the benefit of the patient.

Biography

Dr. Christina Votsi (PhD), is a Laboratory Scientific Officer at the Neurogenetics Department of CING. She obtained her BSc Degree in Biology from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2005. She performed her PhD studies at the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics in collaboration with the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and she obtained her PhD title with distinction, in 2013 from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She has been working at the Neurogenetics Department since 2006 and during these years apart from performing her PhD studies she also worked on other research projects and diagnostic services thus gaining significant experience in medical genetics and translational research. Through these projects she has been mainly active in the investigation of neurodegenerative diseases and Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) and she has been specialized in the use of many techniques including recently developed high-throughput techniques. Through her research activities she contributed towards the identification and characterization of neurodegenerative disease mutations and the identification of T2D susceptibility loci in the Cypriot population. Thus far, she published seven scientific publications; as first author of four (Google Scholar citations:78; h-index:4; i10-index:3), she participated in many international scientific conferences and gave more than five oral presentations. Apart from performing research, she also performs educational activities including teaching and supervision of MSc/PhD students, as a faculty associate at the Cyprus Scholl of Molecular Medicine. She has been involved in national and international research projects. She is also a member of the Cyprus Society of Human Genetics since 2006.

1. Malekkou A, Samarani M, Drousiotou A, Votsi C, Sonnino S, Pantzaris M, Chiricozzi E, Zamba-Papanicolaou E, Aureli M, Loberto N, Christodoulou K; “Biochemical Characterization of the GBA2 c.1780G>C Missense Mutation in Lymphoblastoid Cells from Patients with Spastic Ataxia.” International Journal of Molecular Sciences, October 2018, Volume 19, Issue 10.
2. Kakouri A, Christodoulou CC, Zachariou M, Oulas A, Minadakis G, Demetriou CA, Votsi C, Zamba-Papanicolaou E, Christodoulou K, Spyrou G;”Revealing Clusters of Connected Pathways through Multisource Data Integration in Huntington's disease and Spastic Ataxia.” IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, August 2018.
3. Votsi C, Toufexis C, Michailidou K, Antoniades A, Skordis N, Karaolis M, Pattichis CS, Christodoulou K. “Type 2 Diabetes Susceptibility in the Greek-Cypriot Population: Replication of Associations with TCF7L2, FTO, HHEX, SLC30A8 and IGF2BP2 Polymorphisms”; Genes (Basel). January 2017, Volume 8, Issue 1.
4. Votsi C, Zamba-Papanicolaou E, Middleton LT, Pantzaris M, Christodoulou K. “A Novel GBA2 Gene Missense Mutation in Spastic Ataxia”; Annals of Human Genetics, January 2014, Volume 78, Issue 1, pages 13-22.
5. Christina Votsi, Kyproula Christodoulou. “Molecular diagnosis of autosomal recessive cerebellar ataxia in the whole exome/genome sequencing era”; World Journal of Neurology, December 2013, Volume 28, Issue 3, pages 115-128.
6. Votsi, C., Zamba-Papanicolaou, E., Georghiou, A., Kyriakides, T., Papacostas, S., Kleopa, K.A., Pantzaris, M., Christodoulou, K.; “Investigation of SCA10 in the Cypriot population: Further exclusion of SCA dynamic repeat mutations”; Journal of the Neurological Sciences, December 2012, Volume 323, Issues 1-2, pages 154-157.
7. Paschalis Nicolaou, Anthi Georghiou, Christina Votsi, Lefkos Middleton, Eleni Zamba-Papanicolaou, Kyproula Christodoulou. “A novel c.5308_5311delGAGA mutation in Senataxin in a Cypriot family with an autosomal recessive cerebellar ataxia”; BMC Medical Genetics, April 2008, Volume 9, Issue 28.