UVACCC Welcomes Elias Spiliotis, PhD

The Cancer Center welcomes Professor of Cell Biology Elias Spiliotis, PhD, to the Cancer Biology Program. Dr. Spiliotis’ research interests focus on the spatial organization and regulation of cellular processes that underlie cancer development and metastasis. His lab researches the expression and function of septins, a family of genes abnormally expressed in a variety of cancers including hormonally regulated cancers such as breast, ovarian and prostate, and in glioblastomas, melanomas, renal and colorectal cancers. Septins are functionally linked to cancer hallmarks such as genomic instability, angiogenesis, resistance to cell death, proliferation, metastatic migration and invasion as well as resistance to anti-cancer drugs. The Spiliotis Lab also investigates how septins function in the epithelia to mesenchymal transition, which triggers cancer formation, and in cancer cell division and metastasis. Its current work is unraveling the oncogenic functions of septin 9 in cell migration and invasion, focusing on molecular mechanisms of genomic instability, and the mechanical stress that influences the properties of invasive cancer cells.

Dr. Spiliotis earned his BS in biology from Boston College and his PhD in cell biology and immunology from Johns Hopkins University, then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cell biology at Stanford University. Before joining UVA, he spent 15 years as a faculty member at Drexel University and a member of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia. Welcome, Dr. Spiliotis!

10-31-24