Kourounakis Angeliki

Teaching

• Undergraduate courses/labs: Molecular pharmacology, Drug metabolism, Basic Principles of Drug Design /  Drug Synthesis.
• Graduate courses: Biochemical and Molecular Pharmacology (Master’s program of the Div. of Medicinal Chemistry), Molecular Pharmacology – Oxidative Stress (Master’s program of the Div. of Pharmaceutical Technology / Cosmetology-Dermopharmacology)

Research topics

• Design, synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of bioactive molecules such as antiinflammatory, antiatherosclerosis and compounds for the prevention or treatment of Alzheimer’s disease – neuronal degeneration.
• Emphasis is on multi-target drug design for multifactorial diseases such as atherosclerosis or neurodegeneration. Mechanism of action at the molecular level. 
• Molecular modeling and study of physicochemical properties. Structure-activity relationships. 
• Free radical pharmacochemistry – oxidative stress, prevention thereof. Drug Metabolism – effect of compounds on metabolic enzymes.

Distinctions

• 1994 Award for doctoral research presentation (7th Annual Excellence in Research Competition of the School of Pharmacy, University of Florida).
• 1998 Post doctoral scholarship/grant from the EU.
• Visiting Scientist of LACDR (Leiden/Amsterdam Center for Drug Research, Division of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Leiden)
• 2000 Post doctoral scholarship/grant from the EU.

Recent publications

• Antihyperlipidemic morpholine derivatives with antioxidant activity: An investigation of the aromatic substitution. Eleni M. Ladopoulou, Alexios N. Matralis, Anastasios Nikitakis, Angeliki P. Kourounakis*. Bioorg Med Chem. 23(21):7015-7023 (2015).
• Balancing Antioxidant, Hypolipidemic and Anti-inflammatory Activity in a Single Agent: The Example of 2-Hydroxy-2-Substituted Morpholine, 1,4-Benzoxazine and 1,4-Benzothiazine Derivatives as a Potential Therapeutic Approach against Atherosclerosis. Matralis AN, Bavavea EI, Incerpi S, Pedersen JZ, Kourounakis AP.* Curr Med Chem. 24:1214-1227 (2017).
• Developing potential agents against atherosclerosis: Design, synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of novel dual inhibitors of oxidative stress and Squalene Synthase activity. Katselou, M.G., Matralis, A.N., Kourounakis, A.P.* Eur J Med Chem. 138:748-760 (2017).
• Optimizing the Pharmacological Profile of New Bifunctional Antihyperlipidemic / Antioxidant Morpholine Derivatives. Alexios N. Matralis, and Angeliki P. Kourounakis* ACS Med. Chem. Lett. 10(1):98-104 (2019). 
• Morpholine as a privileged structure: a review on the medicinal chemistry and pharmacological activity of morpholine containing bioactive molecules. Angeliki P. Kourounakis*, Dimitrios Xanthopoulos and Ariadni Tzara. Med Res Rev. 1-44 (2019).