Professor Stavros Selemidis
Professor
Professor
STEM | Health and Biomedical Sciences
Email: stavros.selemidis@rmit.edu.au
Phone: +61 399257182
Campus: Bundoora
BIOL2145 - Cardiorespiratory Biology
BHO58 - Bachelor of Health and Biomedical Sciences (Honours)
ONSP2494 - Pharmacology and Therapeutics
ONSP2563 - Applied Pharmacology
STEM | Health and Biomedical Sciences
Email: stavros.selemidis@rmit.edu.au
Phone: +61 399257182
Campus: Bundoora
BIOL2145 - Cardiorespiratory Biology
BHO58 - Bachelor of Health and Biomedical Sciences (Honours)
ONSP2494 - Pharmacology and Therapeutics
ONSP2563 - Applied Pharmacology
Professor Stavros Selemidis is a pharmacologist and the head of the Oxidant and Inflammation Biology Group (OXIB) in the STEM College and School of Health and Biomedical Sciences (SHBS) at RMIT University. Stavros is also the CSO of the Biotech Company ViraLok Therapeutics Pty Ltd that he founded at RMIT. Stavros is internationally and nationally recognized for his fundamental and clinically translational research which aims to unravel novel disease paradigms and therapeutic targets for respiratory viruses including influenza (IAV), common cold and COVID-19 in humans and livestock industries. To achieve this Stavros has assembled and leads a multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural and gender balanced research team of postdocs, research assistants, HDRs, Honours and WiLstudents at RMIT. Stavros is an integral leader of a large international research program consisting of a consortium of researchers and clinicians that investigate viral and cancer disease mechanisms with a developmental pipeline for therapeutic development and commercialization. His research program is a 3 pillar strategy entailing: Fundamental Biology; Pharmacology and Drug discovery and Pre-clinical Translational Biology all 3 of which are channeling novel IP intoViraLok Therapeutics, which is the entity for translational and commercialization outcomes.
Stavros has >65 peer reviewed publications in some of the highest impact international journals (ave impact factor 8.72; >94% Q1) including Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, Nature Communications, Molecular Cancer, Gastroenterology and PNAS. He has a H-index of 32 with >4,100 citations, and a significant number of these publications are linked to his HDR supervision. Stavros has held prestigious and highly competitive National based fellowships from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) and Australian Research Council (ARC). Stavros' prestigious research fellowships served as a strong foundation for garnering a continuous stream of competitive Category 1 and 3 funding including a total of ~$15 Mill as a chief/partner investigator, of which ~$6M obtained as the lead investigator. Since being recruited to RMIT at the beginning of 2017, Stavros has led an international consortium of commercially funded work that has confidentiality/patent agreements and licensing agreements, which facilitated the advent of ViraLok Therapeutics Pty Ltd. As the CSO of ViraLok Therapeutics, Stavros is the lead investigator of all pre-clinical studies including an international COVID-19 pre-clinical trial and the lead scientist for current and future Big Pharmaceutical company engagement.
Stavros' international reputation as a respiratory and cardiovascular pharmacologist led to sustained and ongoing senior contributions to National government agencies including NHMRC, consisting of NHMRC Grant Review and Fellowship Panels and as an expert peer reviewer of international grant proposals. Stavros has served on international society committees, and is currently a Deputy editor of the leading Australasian Respiratory Disease Journal, Respirology.
Stavros has been invited to present at prestigious Gordon Research conferences, and to >50 local and international conferences and institutions, including in clinically relevant Hospital Grand Round seminar series in major national hospitals. Stavros has graduated multiple HDR students who have undertaken post-doctoral positions in exclusive universities including King’s College London, Harvard University and University of California and who have built careers in academia and industry. Stavros actively contributes to internal RMIT based committees including being a member of the RMIT animal ethics committee as well as the SEH/STEM college OHS committee.
2021 - Service agreement with Viroclinics (Netherlands)
2020 - Advent of ViraLoK Therapeutics Pty Ltd.
2020 - Chief Scientist of ViraLoK Therapeutics Pty Ltd.
2014 - ongoing- Collaborator with Envision Sciences Pty Ltd.
The focus of the research of the Oxidant and Inflammation Biology (OXIB) Group is to identify novel therapeutics for viral diseases and cancer. The research program has 4 major projects and for each project there is a strong integration with collaborators at RMIT (Profs Ross Vlahos and Steven Bozinovski), and both nationally (Prof Doug Brooks; UniSA) and internationally (Prof John O'Leary; Trinity College Dublin).
The first project focusses on the development of novel therapeutics for viruses including influenza, rhinovirus, Dengue virus and COVID-19. With ViraLokTherapeutics we are developing antiviral and anti-inflammatory drugs that thus far have shown good efficacy in pre-clinical models.
The second project of OXIB's ongoing research program is to develop therapeutics for viral diseases in livestock industries. This originated from our highly visible Nature Communications paper that provides evidence of a drug targetable process that underpins viral disease in animals. Pig and poultry industries suffer significantly from viral diseases that are a major animal welfare issue; a global economic burden and a critical source of viral species that ultimately transmit to man and cause global pandemics.
The third project aims to unravel fundamental viral disease mechanisms in athigh risk populations such as pregnant women and cardiovascular patients. Viruses cause more significant disease in these cohorts and our research has thus far identified novel mechanisms of this exacerbated disease and novel therapeutic strategies. Virus infections in pregnancy also lead to significant complications for the offspring, in particular, maternal infection has been associated with neurodevelopmental disorder including schizophrenia. This work is an ongoing collaboration with Monash University (Prof Arthur Christopoulos) and The University of Melbourne (Prof Christos Pantelis).
The fourth project is part of an international research program for cancer and cancer metastasis in collaboration with researchers from UniSA (Prof Doug Brooks) and Trinity College Dublin (Prof John O’Leary). This research program is funded by NHMRC and Industry, in particular, Envision Sciences Pty Ltd. OXIB's role in this major global collaborative network is to provide critical pre-clinical models to test the efficacy of our novel therapeutics against prostate cancer; unravel diagnostic markers and biomarkers of cancer pathogenesis. This line of research and engagement is achieved by an amalgamation, of OXIB’s activities with those of Profs Doug Brooks and John O’Leary and the industry partner Envision Sciences Pty Ltd.
Respiratory Disease, Cardiovascular Disease, Drug Discovery, Pharmacology, Influenza, Common Cold, COVID-19, Virus, Inflammation
Publications
Projects
Awards
Proceedings in the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). 17, 24964 - 24973.
Liong, S.,oseghale, O.,to, E.,brassington, K.,erlich, J.,luong,r.,liong, F.,brooks, R.,martin, C.,o’toole, S.,vinh, a.,o'neill,l.,bozinovski, S.,vlahos, R.,papagianis, P.,o'leary, J.,brooks,d.,selemidis, S (2020).
Nature Communications, Jul 12;8(1):69
To E.e, Vlahos R, Luong R, Halls M.l, Reading P.c., King P.t, Chan C, Drummond G.r., Sobey C.g., Broughton B.r.s, Starkey M.r., Van Der Sluis R., Lewin S.r., Bozinovski S, Quach T, Porter C.j.h., Brooks D.a., O’leary, J.j and Selemidis S*. (2017).
Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. 10, 453- 471.
Drummond Gr, Selemidis S, Griendling K, Sobey Cg. (2011)
Funding - National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) $791,796
Selemidis S. Vlahos, R, Brooks DA, Porter C, O'Leary JJ.
2017 - 2020
Funding - National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) $633,739.00
Selemidis S, Brooks, DA, O'Leary JJ
2017 - 2021
Funding - National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) $1,346,858.00
2016 - 2021
Award date: 20th August 2019
Asian Pacific Society of Respirology for the most outstanding research paper published in Respirology. Title: Novel endosomal NOX2 oxidase inhibitor ameliorates pandemic influenza A virus‐induced lung inflammation in mice. Respirology, 24, 1011-1017.
Recipients: Stavros Selemidis
Award date: RMIT Research Awards 2018
Recipients: Prof Melissa Churchill, Prof Steven Bozinovski, Assoc Prof Janine Danks, Prof Paul Gorry, Assoc Prof Anthony Jaworowski, Dr Jonathan McQualter, Assoc Prof Samantha Richardson, Assoc Prof Stavros Selemidis, Prof Ross Vlahos
Award date: 2014
Recipients: Stavros Selemidis
Award date: 2021
Recipients: Stavros Selemidis
National competitive grants – external sources
Industry funding – external sources
Media Engagemen Due To The Original Article In Nature Communications
Altmetric Score: 184
(To E.E, Vlahos R, Luong R, Halls M.L, Reading P.C., King P.T, Chan C, Drummond G.R., Sobey C.G., Broughton B.R.S, Starkey M.R., Van Der Sluis R., Lewin S.R., Bozinovski S, Quach T, Porter C.J.H., Brooks D.A., O’leary, J.J And Selemidis S*. (2017). Endosomal NOX2 oxidase exacerbates virus pathogenicity and is a target for antiviral therapy. Nature Communications, Jul 12;8(1):69. Doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-00057-x.)
Media Engagement Due To Original Article In Pnas In 2020
Altmetric Score: 170
Liong, S.,Oseghale, O.,To, E.,Brassington, K.,Erlich, J.,Luong,R.,Liong, F.,Brooks, R.,Martin, C.,O’toole, S.,Vinh, A.,O'neill,L.,Bozinovski, S.,Vlahos, R.,Papagianis, P.,O'leary, J.,Brooks,D.,Selemidis, S (2020). Influenza A virus causes maternal and fetal pathology via innate and adaptive vascular inflammation in mice In: Proceedings in the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). 17, 24964 - 24973.
The study was featured in over 200 online and broadcast stories in mainstream, science and medical media in Australia and globally. The combined audience for the online news sites where the research featured is over 382 million. Advertising value estimated at over $AUD3.5 million.
Acknowledgement of Country
RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.
Acknowledgement of Country
RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.
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