Overview

Vasileios Petrou, PhD joined the Department of Microbiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics and the
Center for Immunity and Inflammation as an Assistant Professor and Chancellor Scholar on July 1, 2019. Dr.
Petrou received his PhD in Neuroscience from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 2012 and joins
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, where
he completed his postdoctoral training in 2019. Dr. Petrou's research focus is to understand the structure-
function relationship of membrane proteins, with a particular emphasis on bacterial membrane enzymes
involved in antibiotic resistance, and eukaryotic receptors and enzymes relevant to human physiology and
pathology. In mid-2017, Dr. Petrou was awarded a highly competitive National Institutes of Health (NIH)
grant (K99/R00) to investigate in more detail the structure and function of the bacterial aminoarabinose
transferase protein ArnT, which is a key bacterial membrane protein enabling resistance to polymyxin-class
antibiotics.

Education

PHD, 2012, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY

Curriculum Vitae

View CV

Relevant Publications

Capodagli G.C., Tylor K.M., Kaelber J.T., Petrou V.I.*, Federle M.J.*, Neiditch M.B.* (2020) Structure-function studies of Rgg binding to pheromones and target promoters reveal a model of transcription factor interplay. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) 117:24494?24502. (PMID: 32907945) [*co-corresponding authors] doi: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2008427117

Belcher Dufrisne M., Jorge C.D., Timoteo C.G., Petrou V.I., Ashraf K.U., Banerjee S., Clarke O.B., Santos H., Mancia F. (2020) Structural and functional characterization of phosphatidylinositol-phosphate biosynthesis in mycobacteria. Journal of Molecular Biology 432:5137?5151. (PMID: 32389689) doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2020.04.028

Dufrisne M.B., Petrou V.I., Clarke O.B. & Mancia F. (2017) Structural basis for catalysis at the membrane-water interface. Biochim Biophys Acta BBA - Mol Cell Biol Lipids 1862: 1368-1385. (PMID: 27913292) doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbalip.2016.11.011

Petrou V.I., Herrera C.M., Schultz K.M., Clarke O.B., Vendome J., Tomasek D., Banerjee S., Rajashankar K.R., Belcher Dufrisne M., Kloss B., Kloppmann E., Rost B., Klug C.S., Trent M.S., Shapiro L., Mancia F. (2016) Structures of aminoarabinose transferase ArnT suggest a molecular basis for Lipid A glycosylation. Science, 351(6273): 608-612. (PMID: 26912703) doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aad1172

Logothetis D.E., Petrou V.I., Zhang M., Mahajan R., Meng X.-Y., Adney S.K., Cui M., Baki L. (2015) Phosphoinositide control of membrane protein function: a frontier led by studies on ion channels. Annu. Rev. Physiol. 77: 81?104. (PMID: 25293526) doi: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-physiol-021113-170358

Rosenhouse-Dantsker A., Noskov S., Han H., Adney S.K., Tang Q.-Y., Rodriguez-Menchaca A.A., Kowalsky G.B., Petrou V.I., Osborn C.V., Logothetis D.E., Levitan I. (2012) Distant cytosolic residues mediate a two-way molecular switch that controls the modulation of inwardly rectifying potassium (Kir) channels by cholesterol and phosphatidylinositol 4,5- bisphosphate (PI(4,5)P2). Journal of Biological Chemistry 287: 40266-40278. (PMID: 22995912) doi: https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M111.336339

Logothetis D.E., Petrou V.I., Adney S.K., Mahajan R. (2010) Channelopathies linked to plasma membrane phosphoinositides. Pflugers Arch. 460(2): 321-341. (PMID: 20396900) doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00424-010-0828-y

Michailidis I.E., Helton T.D., Petrou V.I., Mirshahi T., Ehlers M.D., Logothetis D.E. (2007) Phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate regulates NMDA receptor activity through alpha-actinin. Journal of Neuroscience 27: 5523-5532. (PMID: 17507574) doi: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4378-06.2007

Areas Of Interest

Cryo-Electron Microscopy

Cryo-Electron Tomography

Membrane Proteins.

Microcrystal Electron Diffraction

Structure-Function studies

X- ray crystallography

Course List

GSND5001Q		Responsible Conduct Resrch
GSND5200Q		Intro to Biomedical Sciences

Understanding the structure-function relationship of membrane proteins

Dr. Petrou's research focus is to understand the structure-function relationship of membrane proteins,
with a particular emphasis on bacterial membrane enzymes involved in antibiotic resistance, and
eukaryotic receptors and enzymes relevant to human physiology and pathology. In mid-2017, Dr. Petrou
was awarded a highly competitive National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant (designated K99/R00) to
investigate in more detail the structure and function of the bacterial aminoarabinose transferase
protein ArnT, a key bacterial membrane protein enabling resistance to polymyxin-class antibiotics. The
award is based, in part, on Dr. Petrou's 2016 peer-reviewed publication as first author in the
restigious AAAS-sponsored journal Science. This prior work and his NIH grant positions Dr. Petrou to
gain important insights on the way in which the apo- and substrate bound forms of ArnT function to
stymie antimicrobials. In addition, this work will include follow-up, translational studies that will
work to improve and redesign anti-infectives.