Constantinos (Costas) Koumenis, PhD
Richard H. Chamberlain Professor, Vice Chair and Director of Radiation Oncology Research, & Lab PI
Costas was born in Nicosia, Cyprus. He received his B.S degree in Pharmacy from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece and his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from the University of Houston, TX. He completed postdoctoral training in Radiation and Tumor Biology at Stanford University. He arrived at Penn in 2006 and he is currently an Endowed Professor and Director of the Research Division in the Dept. of Radiation Oncology. He is currently the principal investigator on multiple research grants from the National Institutes of Health. Costas has mentored many undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, some of who hold faculty positions in academia or senior scientist positions in industry. From 2009 to 2018 he served as co-Leader of the Radiobiology & Imagin Program and from 2018-2022, as the Associate Director for Translational Research of the Abramson Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Costas loves sailing (especially in the Agean sea), and playing traditional Greek music on his bouzouki with his fellow amateur bandmates.
Anastasia joined Dr. Koumenis's lab in 2019, where her research focuses on studying the effects of proton radiotherapy including FLASH radiotherapy, on different models of normal tissue and exploring the mechanisms behind these effects. She earned her B.Sc., along with an integrated M.Sc., in 2008 from the Department of Biological Applications and Technology at the University of Ioannina in Greece. She later completed her Ph.D. in Experimental Physiology in 2013 at the same university’s School of Medicine. In her free time, Anastasia enjoys traveling, reading and gardening.
Priyanka Chowdhury, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Priyanka was born and raised in India. She did her BSc. and MSc. in Microbiology from University of Calcutta and West Bengal State University respectively. She completed her Ph.D. in 2021 from University of Kalyani, India in a collaborative project entitled “Regulation of metastasis by PARP-1 in human cancer cells in absence and presence of high LET and low LET radiation”. She did her high LET research work on carbon ion radiation therapy in the Radiation Biology department of Inter-University Accelerator Centre (IUAC, New Delhi, India) and her low LET research work was conducted in Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, India. She joined Dr. Koumenis group in 2021 as a Postdoctoral Researcher. Her research interest focus on delineating the mechanisms behind the ability of Ultra-High Dose Rate (FLASH) Radiation to spare normal GI tissues and to perform preclinical studies on different fractionation schemes and dose rates of FLASH Proton radiotherapy using cell line and animal models. In her free time, she enjoys gardening and dancing. Being a travel freak, Priyanka is always in search of new travel destinations.
Frank received his undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Pennsylvania in 2010. Since 2012 he works in in vivo modeling and laboratory compliance. Starting his career in Diabetes, Obesity, and Kidney research, also at UPenn, he has since worked on studying metastatic cancer in mouse models. In 2017 he completed ULAR's Animal Research Coordinator program. Outside of the lab, Frank enjoys reading Science Fiction and gaming.
Frank Chingha
Research Specialist & Lab Manager
Uri Amit MD, PhD
Visiting Professor
Uri was born in Hatzerim Airbase and grew up in the Negev in southern Israel. He studied medicine at Ben-Gurion University and pursued a Ph.D. in Physiology and Immunology at Tel-Aviv University. After completing the program, he began a residency in Radiation Oncology and performed translational research in Radiation Immunology at the Chaim Sheba Medical Center.
After completing his residency, he joined the Radiation Oncology Department at the Tel Aviv Medical Center as a physician-scientist focused on treating Gastrointestinal and Pediatric cancer patients. In 2022 he flew with his family to Philadelphia for a fellowship in proton therapy and radiation biology research at the Koumenis Lab at the Abramson Cancer Center. Uri is interested in dissecting the radioprotective mechanisms of FLASH proton therapy in models of gastrointestinal toxicity. During his free time, he enjoys exploring the trails in the area with his wife and three kids, drinking a lot of coffee, and watching bizarre European movies.
Sandra Bicher
Postdoctoral Fellow
Sandra was born and raised in Germany. She earned her B.Sc. in Applied Biology from Bonn-Rhine-Sieg University of Applied Sciences and her M.Sc. in Radiation Biology from the Technical University of Munich. She then pursued a Ph.D. in Radiation Biology at the Technical University of Munich. In 2023, Sandra joined the Koumenis lab, where she focuses on investigating the mechanisms underlying proton FLASH-induced normal tissue sparing in the gastrointestinal tract. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, hiking, cooking, and watching horror movies.
Nektarios Kostopoulos, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Nektarios is from Greece, where he earned a Bachelor's degree along with an integrated M.Sc. in Biological Applications and Technology from the University of Ioannina. He also completed a Ph.D. in Immunology at the same university, focusing on the role of radiation therapy in enhancing CAR T cell therapy in lymphoma.
In 2019, he joined the Department of Radiation Oncology at UPenn as an exchange visitor to fulfill his Master’s thesis and continued to complete his Ph.D. research. He joined the Koumenis Lab in 2023, where his research now focuses on improving CAR T cell therapy for pancreatic tumors.”
ELias El Hoyek
Elias was born and raised in Bdadoun, Lebanon, and moved to the U.S. in 2020. He is currently a premedical student at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in bioengineering, with a minor in chemistry. His research in the Koumenis Lab is centered around elucidating the mechanisms behind FLASH proton radiotherapy and its potential for sparing normal tissue toxicity in ocular substructures. Outside of the lab, Elias enjoys exploring hiking trails with his friends around Philadelphia.
