Dr Alkystis Phinikaridou is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences at King’s College London. Dr. Phinikaridou received her PhD in Physiology from Boston University in 2009. After a one-year postdoctoral training at Boston University (USA) in Prof Hamilton’s lab, she joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering at King’s College London in 2010 as a postdoctoral research associate in Prof Botnar’s group. She then became a Lecturer in Imaging Biology in 2015 and a Senior Lecturer in 2020. 

Research interests — Molecular Imaging of Cardiovascular Diseases

Dr Phinikaridou’s research focuses on developing and applying innovative imaging probes and non-invasive MRI/ PET techniques to understand and detect cardiovascular diseases—atherosclerosis, aortic aneurysms, deep vein thrombosis and heart failure. She has established animal models to identify novel imaging targets—proteins indicating disease. She has then developed and validated imaging probes and methods to visualise these proteins, enabling: (i) better understanding of the biology underpinning disease progression, (ii) non-invasive detection and stratification of disease, and (iii) monitoring the biological response to treatment. Importantly, she has translated findings—from animal models into the clinics—bridging the clinical translational gap.

Major areas of interest include molecular imaging of:

• fibrosis—including elastin, tropoelastin and collagen
• inflammation (myeloperoxidase)
• endothelial permeability and dysfunction