I am senior bioinformatician working on the development and application of computational approaches to tackle emerging problems in the field of precision medicine. Currently I am co-leading the bioinformatics node of  NeuroSys-Med Center of Excellence of the University of Bergen in Norway.  I have experience in the analysis of omics datasets including Next Generation Sequencing data (genomics, transcriptomics and epigenomics), as well as single-cell data from CyTOF and IMC technologies. I have also successfully applied different machine learning techniques in biomarker discovery studies, in gene regulation studies, and in identifying and characterising DNA regulatory elements such as enhancers, promoters and microRNAs. Throughout my academic career I am actively involved in teaching activities and I have organised and lectured several bioinformatics courses. 

• Invited speaker to the 12th national NFCF (Norsk FlowCytometriForening) meeting in collaboration with the University of Tromsø, presentation title: "High-dimensional single cell analyses with applications in precision medicine", June 2024.
• Invited speaker to the annual CCBIO Junior Symbosium, presentation title: "Lets talk about bioinformatics...", June 2023.
• Video campaign about Improved Treatments of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML_PM project), Digital Life Norway 2021
• Invited speaker at the Winter Enrichment Program (WEP) 2020, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, presentation title: "Liquid Biopsies: Progress and Challenges in the New Era of Precision Oncology"
• Research highlight: A closer look at bacteria hijackers, featured by Nature Middle East  
• Research highlight: Improved characterization of genetic variation by machine-learning algorithm, publication featured by Nature Middle East

 

• 2023: Lecturer of the course NeuroSysM930, Applied boinformatics and data analysis in medical research, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen, Norway
• 2022: Lecturer and organiser of the course BINF200, Analysis of biological sequences and structures, Department of Informatics, University of Bergen, Norway
• 2021: Lecturer and organiser of the course Genomics for Precision Medicine, Topic: Introduction to DNA-Seq processing for cancer data – SNV detection and interpretation, Organised by NORBIS, Norway
• 2020 to now:  Lecturer of cancer research courses, organised by the Centre for Cancer Biomarkers (CCBIO), University of Bergen, Norway. Topics:
  1. CCBIO905: Computational methods for the analysis of mass cytometry imaging data
  2. CCBIO906: Computational methods for copy number variation detection and data interpretation
• 2014-2015 Teaching assistant of MSc/PhD courses of the Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering Division (CEMSE), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Poster

• Gavasso, Sonia; Haugsøen, Jonas Bull; Kleftogiannis, Dimitrios et al. (2024). Short-Term and Long-Term Impact of Autologous Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation on Immune Profiles in Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis. (external link)
• Rim, Sehee; Kleftogiannis, Dimitrios; Hanevik, Kurt (2024). Toward systems immunology: understanding immunological dynamics after human experimental Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli infection using computational approaches. (external link)
• Rim, Sehee; Sakkestad, Sunniva Todnem; Vedøy, Oda Barth et al. (2024). Advancing towards systems immunology: understanding immunological dynamics in human experimental enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli infection through cytometry, proteomics, and computational approaches. (external link)

Academic article

• Bjørnstad, Ole Vidhammer; Carrasco Fernandez, Manuel; Finne, Kenneth et al. (2024). Global and single-cell proteomics view of the co-evolution between neural progenitors and breast cancer cells in a co-culture model. (external link)
• Tornaas, Stian; Kleftogiannis, Dimitrios; Fromreide, Siren et al. (2024). Development of a high dimensional imaging mass cytometry panel to investigate spatial organization of tissue microenvironment in formalin-fixed archival clinical tissues. (external link)
• Kleftogiannis, Dimitrios; Gavasso, Sonia; Tislevoll, Benedicte Sjo et al. (2024). Automated cell type annotation and exploration of single-cell signaling dynamics using mass cytometry. (external link)
• Ehsani, Rezvan; Jonassen, Inge; Akslen, Lars Andreas et al. (2023). LOCATOR: feature extraction and spatial analysis of the cancer tissue microenvironment using mass cytometry imaging technologies. (external link)
• Kjølle, Silje; Finne, Kenneth; Birkeland, Even et al. (2023). Hypoxia induced responses are reflected in the stromal proteome of breast cancer. (external link)
• Tislevoll, Benedicte Sjo; Hellesøy, Monica; Fagerholt, Oda Helen Eck et al. (2023). Early response evaluation by single cell signaling profiling in acute myeloid leukemia. (external link)
• Wik, Elisabeth; Aziz, Sura Mohammed; Vethe, Heidrun et al. (2022). Neurogenesis and angiogenesis are associated features of aggressive breast cancer . (external link)
• Tislevoll, Benedicte Sjo; Hellesøy, Monica; Fagerholt, Oda Helen Eck et al. (2022). Early response evaluation by single cell signaling profiling in acute myeloid leukemia. (external link)
• Tornaas, Stian; Kleftogiannis, Dimitrios; Fromreide, Siren et al. (2022). Development of an antibody panel for imaging mass cytometry to investigate cancer-associated fibroblast heterogeneity and spatial distribution in archival tissues. (external link)
• Kleftogiannis, Dimitrios; Tislevoll, Benedicte Sjo; Hellesøy, Monica et al. (2022). Identifying predictors of survival in patients with leukemia using single-cell mass cytometry and machine learning. (external link)
• Kleftogiannis, Dimitrios (2020). Circulating Tumour DNA Sequencing Identifies a Genetic Resistance-Gap in Colorectal Cancers with Acquired Resistance to EGFR-Antibodies and Chemotherapy. (external link)
• Kleftogiannis, Dimitrios (2020). Genome-wide plasma DNA methylation features of metastatic prostate cancer. (external link)
• Kleftogiannis, Dimitrios (2020). Detection of genomic alterations in breast cancer with circulating tumour DNA sequencing. (external link)

Errata

• Tislevoll, Benedicte Sjo; Hellesøy, Monica; Fagerholt, Oda Helen Eck et al. (2023). Author Correction: Early response evaluation by single cell signaling profiling in acute myeloid leukemia (Nature Communications, (2023), 14, 1, (115), 10.1038/s41467-022-35624-4). (external link)

Editorial

• Ermini, Luca; Mallo, Diego; Kleftogiannis, Dimitrios et al. (2023). Editorial: Cancer evolution. (external link)

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.

Selected publications from last 5 years

1. Bjørnstad OV, […], Kleftogiannis D, […] and Vethe H, Global and single-cell proteomics view of the co-evolution between neural progenitors and breast cancer cells in a co-culture model, EBioMedicine (2024), doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2024.105325
2. Kleftogiannis D, Gavasso S, […], and Jonassen I, Automated cell type annotation and exploration of single cell signalling dynamics using mass cytometry, iScience Cell Press, (2024), doi:10.1101/2022.08.13.503587
3. Tornaas S, Kleftogiannis D, […], and Harsh Dongre, Development of an antibody panel for imaging mass cytometry to investigate cancer-associated fibroblast heterogeneity and spatial distribution in archival tissues, Heliyon Cell Press, (2024), doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e31191
4. Ehsani R, Jonassen I, Akslen A and Kleftogiannis D,  LOCATOR: feature extraction and spatial analysis of the cancer tissue microenvironment using mass cytometry imaging technologies, Bioinformatics Advances, (2023), DOI: 10.1093/bioadv/vbad146 
5. Kjølle S, Finne K, Birkeland E, Ardawatia V, Winge I, Aziz S, Knutsvik G, Wik E, Paulo JA, Vethe H, Kleftogiannis D, and Akslen LA, Hypoxia induced responses are reflected in the stromal proteome of breast cancer, Nature Communications, (2023), DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39287-7  
6. Tislevoll BS, [...], Kleftogiannis D, [...], and Gjertsen BT, Early response evaluation by single cell signaling profiling in acute myeloid leukemia, Nature Communications, (2023), doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-35624-4
7. Zhu G, Guo A, [...], Kleftogiannis D, [...] and Anders Skanderup, Tissue-specific cell-free DNA degradation quantifies circulating tumor DNA burden, Nature Communications, (2021), doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22463-y
8. Kleftogiannis D, Ho D, […], and Ng S, Detection of genomic alterations in breast cancer with circulating free DNA sequencing, Scientific Reports, (2020), doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-72818-6.
9. Wu A, Cremaschi P, […], Kleftogiannis D, […] and Attard G, The plasma methylome of metastatic prostate cancer, Journal of Clinical Investigation, (2020), doi: 10.1172/JCI130887.
10. Yogev O, Almedia G, [...], Kleftogiannis D, [...], and Chesler L, In vivo modelling of chemo-resistant neuroblastoma provides new insights into chemo-refractory disease and metastatic progression, Cancer Research, (2019) ,doi:10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-18-2759.
11. Kleftogiannis D, Punta M, […], Lise S, Identification of single nucleotide variants using position-specific error estimation in deep sequencing data, BMC Medical Genomics, (2019), doi: 10.1186/s12920-019-0557-9.

I am currently involded in RAM-MS, a Randomized clinical trial comparing autologous stem cell transplantation versus treatment with alemtuzumab, cladribin or ocrelizumab in patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis. I lead the bioinformatics analysis, and I am responsible for data depositon and management.

In the past I was involved in several precision oncology projects as a WP leader and senior bioinformatician:

• 2019 - 2022: University of Bergen, Project: "Improved Treatments of Acute Myeloid Leukaemias by Personalised Medicine (AML_PM)" funded by ERAPerMed.
• 2021 - 2023: University of Bergen, Project: “Hormone regulators and immune landscape in breast cancer of the young – signature biomarkers for improved diagnosis and outcome”, Funder: Helse Vest.
• 2021 - 2023: University of Bergen, Project: “Nerve involvement in breast cancer”, Funder: Norwegian Cancer Research Society.
• 2019 - Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) – Royal Marsden Cancer Hospital, Project“: CANCEREVO: Deciphering and predicting the evolution of cancer cell populations”, Funder: ERC funded (Consolidator Grant to M Gerlinger)
• 2018 - National Cancer Centre Singapore (SingHealth), Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Project: “CaLiBRe: Cancer Liquid Biopsy for Real-time diagnostics and early intervention”, Funder: A*STAR (National Liquid Biopsy program)