Overview

Dr. Alexandros (Alex) Papachristodoulou is an Associate Research Scientist in the field of prostate cancer
research at the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics of the Columbia University Irving
Medical Center (CUIMC) in New York. He obtained his M.Sc. in Cancer Therapeutics at the Barts Cancer
Institute in London, UK and completed his Ph.D. in Cancer Biology at the University of Zurich in Zurich,
Switzerland, where he focused on developing innovative technologies for treating chemotherapy-resistant
brain tumors. Since 2018, Alex studied the molecular mechanisms of prostate cancer predisposition and
initiation in the laboratory of Dr. Cory Abate-Shen at the CUIMC. He is a William Guy Forbeck Foundation
Scholar, Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) Young Investigator and National Cancer Institute (NCI) K99/R00
Pathway to Independence Awardee. In addition to several invited seminars and numerous publications in
highly regarding peer-reviewed journals, Alex is currently co-leading the PCF???s Cancer Disparities working
group and is actively engaging in outreach activities to raise awareness for early prostate cancer detection. He
engages in correlative studies with novel pre-clinical models and human prostate cancer biobanks to identify
previously unrecognized genetic, mitochondrial and metabolic alterations in aggressive prostate cancer. Alex
established his independent laboratory at the Rutgers Health New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) and the
Center for Cell Signaling in 2025, where he expands on this work to enhance our understanding on the
mitochondrial determinants of prostate cancer initiation, predisposition to aggressive disease and precision
therapy.

Education

D.Phil, 2017, University of Zurich, Zurich Switzerland

Languages

Greek

Relevant Publications

Papachristodoulou A*, Heidegger I, Virk RK, Di Bernardo M, Kim JY, Laplanca C, Picech F, Sch??fer G, De Castro GL, Hibshoosh H, Loda M, Klocker H, Rubin AM, Benson CM, McKiernan JM, Dutta A*, Abate-Shen C; Metformin overcomes the consequences of NKX3.1 loss to suppress prostate cancer progression; Eur Urol., Apr;85(4):361-372; *authors contributed equally; 2024

Papachristodoulou A*, Rodriguez-Calero A, Panja S, Margolskee E, Virk RK, Milner TA, Pina Martina L, Kim JY, Di Bernardo M, Williams AB, Maliza EA, Caputo JM, Haas C, Wang V, De Castro GL, Wenske S, Hibshoosh H, McKiernan JM, Shen M, Rubin M, Mitrofanova A, Dutta A*, Abate-Shen C; NKX3.1 localization to mitochondria suppresses prostate cancer initiation; Cancer Discov. 11(9):2316-2333; *authors contributed equally; 2021

Lopez-Bujanda ZA, Obradovic A, Nirschl RT, O'Donnell T, Laserson U, Macedo-Gonzales RJ, Crawley L, Papachristodoulou A, Reshef R, Yuan T, Soni KM, Antonarakis ES, Larman BH, Shen M, Muranski P, Drake CG; TGM4: An immunogenic prostate-restricted antigen. J. Immunother Cancer. 9(6):e001649; 2021

Papachristodoulou A*, Silginer M*, Weller M, Schneider H, Hasenbach K, Janicot M, Roth P.; Therapeutic targeting of TGF-?? ligands in glioblastoma using novel antisense oligonucleotides reduces the growth of experimental gliomas; Clin Cancer Res. 25(23):7189-7201. *authors contributed equally; 2019

Papachristodoulou A*, Signorell RD*, Werner B, Brambila D, Luciani P, Cavusoglu M, Grandjean J, Silginer M, Rudin M, Martin E, Weller M, Roth P, Leroux JC.; Chemotherapy sensitization of glioblastoma by ultrasound-mediated delivery of therapeutic liposomes. J. Control Release. 295:130-139. *authors contributed equally; 2019

Areas Of Interest

Health Disparities

Metabolism

Mitochondria

Precision Medicine

Prostate cancer

Course List

Translational prostate cancer research and mitochondrial biology laboratory

Our laboratory uses a plethora of pre-clinical models, which recapitulate the genetics, progression and heterogeneity of human prostate tumors as well as genome base editing tools to readily characterize the function of pathogenic mtDNA alterations. We are particularly interested in determining the functional impact and clinical relevance of genetic and metabolic factors for prostate cancer progression and disparities. By understanding how these alterations confer specific vulnerabilities to more aggressive tumors, his studies aim at developing novel precision medicine strategies that can improve patient care.