Apostolos Menegakis

After obtaining my Master’s degree in Radiation Biology from University College London, I moved to Germany to pursue a PhD at Technical University of Dresden in the lab of prof. Michael Baumann. My doctoral research focused on DNA repair protein expression as biomarkers of radiotherapy response in preclinical mouse models. During a subsequent postdoctoral period in Tubingen university Clinic under the supervision of Prof. Daniel Zips, we translated this work to patient-derived tumor biopsies using ex vivo models.

Driven by a growing interest in tumor microenvironment–mediated therapy resistance, I shifted my research focus. In 2017, supported by a fellowship from the German Research Foundation (DFG), I joined the group of René Medema at the Netherlands Cancer Institute to study hypoxia-induced quiescence as a mechanism of radiotherapy resistance.

Since 2023, I have continued this work in the group of Leila Akkari, investigating hypoxia-driven therapy resistance within tumor–host interactions. My current research focuses on the mechanisms that promotes the survival of hypoxic tumor cells and how tumor cells co-evolve to prime macrophages to support post-therapy relapse, with the aim of identifying time-dependent therapeutic vulnerabilities.