Annita Achilleos
Assistant Professor
Profile
Annita Achilleos is an Assistant Professor in Developmental Biology and Developmental Genetics at the University of Nicosia Medical School.
Dr Achilleos obtained her BSc with Honors in Biology from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and completed her MSc as a Fulbright Scholar in Cell Biology and her PhD in Developmental Genetics from New York University School of Medicine. She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Stowers Institute for Biomedical Research in the lab of Dr Paul Trainor in Kansas City, MO, after which she was a Research Associate at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX, in the lab of Dr Ross Poché.
Dr Achilleos is a developmental biologist interested in the complex processes that control the intricate development of the craniofacial skeleton. Her work has focused on neural crest cells, a magnificent, multipotent cell population that gives rise to the majority of the craniofacial skeleton during embryogenesis. She has used mouse and zebrafish models to study the pathophysiology of human craniofacial disorders and she has recently discovered a novel role for the transcription factor Ronin in craniofacial development and ribosome biogenesis. She is currently interested in using molecular biology, histology, and genetic approaches to better understand the transcriptional regulation of neural crest cells and their subsequent differentiation into facial bone and cartilage.