Katerina Strati is an assistant professor at the Department of Biological Sciences, at UCY. She completed her graduate studies in the lab of Dr. Paul Lambert at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. During her PhD work she developed a mouse model for HPV-related head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). The model was subsequently used to dissect individual in vivo contributions of the HPV16 oncogenes to HPVrelated HNSCC, such as the importance of the E7-pRb interaction, E6-p53 interaction in carcinogenesis. 

 

In order to complement her knowledge for future pursuit of this research interest she did her post-doctoral work in the lab of Dr. Maria Blasco at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, Madrid. Specifically, she studied the roles of telomeres and telomerase in the novel technology of reprogramming cells to pluripotency forming iPSCs.

 

Since moving to UCY her research interests have integrated both her PhD as well as her post-doctoral experience. Her long-term goal is to gain a broader understanding of the interaction between oncogenic viruses, stem cells and cellular plasticity. She aims to understand how this interaction impacts the viral lifecycle and carcinogenesis.