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Vlahou received her BS from the School of Biology,
University of Athens, Greece and her Ph.D from the
Department of Cell Biology, Baylor College of Medicine,
Houston Texas. Vlahou pursued post-doctoral studies at the
Eastern VA Medical School, VA, where she was subsequently
appointed as a research assistant professor until 2003 when
she moved to IIBEAA. Vlahou remains an adjunct assistant
professor in the department of Microbiology and Molecular
Cell Biology, Eastern VA Medical School. During her doctoral
and post-doctoral studies Vlahou received various awards
including an award for best oral presentation by graduate
student at the Southwestern Developmental Biology Conference
(1994), the AFUD/AUA fellowship (1998-2000) as well as the
Pfizer Scholar in Urology award (2000). Vlahou is one of
the founding members of the Hellenic Proteomics Society and
since the establishment of the Society in 2004 she has
served as its General Secretary. During her post-doctoral
studies, Vlahou applied mass spectrometry-based technologies
in the search for disease biomarkers. Her working hypothesis
is that cancer is associated with a proteomic fingerprint in
the patient tissue and body fluids. Identification of this
fingerprint by the use of contemporary proteomic
technologies can form the basis for the development of
highly accurate assays for the detection and monitoring of
disease progression. Vlahou is testing this hypothesis in
urogenital cancers. Selected proteins of the fingerprint are
identified and their role in cancer is further analyzed. a-
Defensin is a peptide found in the urine of bladder cancer
patients. Further studies demonstrated a correlation of the
expression of this peptide with tumor aggressiveness. The
effects of a-defensin on bladder cancer cell lines are
currently investigated by a combination of molecular and
proteomic approaches. Vlahou has received financial support
for her studies from the American Cancer Society as well as
private foundations in the US.
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