Committee bio
Dr Dimitrios Cakouros
School of Biomedicine,
The University of Adelaide.
South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute.
SA
Dr Dimitrios (Jim) Cakouros obtained his PhD in 2002 from the ANU, John Curtin School of Medical Research under the supervision of Professor Frances Shannon.
Currently Dimitrios is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Adelaide and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), where his interests lie in identifying epigenetic enzymes involved in bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cell (BMSC) self-renewal, ageing and skeletal diseases including osteoporosis and craniosynostosis. This has led to unravelling the function of DNA hydroxymethylases (Tet), histone methyltransferases and demethylases (Ezh2 and KDM6A) in BMSC lineage determination, skeletal development and osteoporosis.
Another area of interest is deciphering the epigenetic basis of mesenchymal stem cell ageing and the effects of diet and diabetes on BMSC dysfunction.
Dr Cakouros is also the current chairperson of the Epigenetics Consortium of South Australia inc (EpiCSA).
Early in 2008, Sue Clark brought a handful of epigenetics researchers from Australia together to form the Australian Epigenetics Alliance. The AEpiA has now grown to a membership of over 600, with members spanning not only Australasia, but the globe. In February 2021, our Victorian local organising committee hosted our eighth flagship Epigenetics conference, online for the first time. Our NSW team is now busy preparing for Epigenetics 2022, which will be held in September in Kingscliff, NSW.