Vasilis Vasiliou designated the Bliss Professor of Epidemiology march 22, 2018 Vasilis Vasiliou Vasilis Vasiliou (photo by Robert Lisak) Vasilis Vasiliou, newly designated as the Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology, focuses his research on investigating the mechanisms of cellular responses to environmental stress and gene-environment interactions involved in a number of diseases, including alcohol-induced liver disease and various forms of cancer such as colon and pancreatic cancer, gout, obesity and diabetes.
Vasiliou is also developing small molecules (aldehyde dehydrogenase inhibitors) that will enhance the efficacy of chemotherapy and radiotherapy of cancer.
The Yale professor has established an internationally recognized research program that has been continuously funded by the National Eye Institute and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism since 1997. He has published over 170 papers, eight book chapters, and edited two books on alcohol and cancer. He is the editor of Human Genomics and serves on the editorial boards of several toxicology and visual sciences journals.
Vasiliou received his B.Sc. in chemistry and Ph.D. in biochemical pharmacology from the University of Ioannina (Greece). He trained in gene-environment interactions, molecular toxicology, and pharmacogenetics at the Department of Environmental Health in the College of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati. Vasiliou began his academic career at the University of Colorado School of Pharmacy, where he rose through the ranks to become professor and director of the Toxicology Graduate Program. He was also professor of ophthalmology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He joined the Yale faculty in 2014 as professor of environmental health sciences, and chair of the department.