Damianou, Christakis A.
Preferred name
Damianou, Christakis A.
Translated Name
Δαμιανού, Χριστάκης Α.
Recruitment Date
September 3, 2012
Position
Professor
Email
christakis.damianou@cut.ac.cy
ORCID
Scopus Author ID
Researcher ID
Main Affiliation
CUT
Google Scholar
Status
staff
Biography
Christakis Damianou received a B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in Electrical engineering in 1988, 1990 and 1993 respectively. He was employed at the universities of Arizona, Indiana, Harvard and Frederick. Since he returned to Cyprus (1995) his goal was to create a competitive laboratory in MRI guided focused ultrasound surgery. Christakis Damianou is currently associate professor at Cyprus University of Technology with the Electrical engineering department (since September of 2012). He teaches courses in the area of biomedical engineering (bioengineering, medical imaging and medical electronics). His research interests include MRI guided therapeutic ultrasound and MRI compatible robotics. So far he was involved in 22 research programs, having the coordination of 9 of them. The acronyms of the main programs that he participated are: ULTRASOUND Ι, ULTRASOUND II, SONOTHERM, ODISEAME, NETTLE, N2L, SONOMRI, BRAINSONIC, SONOSTROKE, PROFUS, SONOPLAQUE and ULTRASTROKE. Based on his research activities he published 81 scientific papers and 3 book chapters. He is the inventor of an international patent: ‘MRI positioning system for ultrasound brain surgery’ (WO/2007/082495). Since 1990 he is involved in the area of MRI guided Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS) for medical applications. He is the co-inventor of MRgFUS which is a technology with many medical products globally. Intense ultrasound causes high temperatures (60-100 oC). Therefore this modality can be used to destroy cancer cells. This technology is focused and therefore only a specific target is destroyed, leaving the surrounding tissue unaffected. This technology was never commercialised in the past because there was no effective imaging method to monitor the therapy. Recently with the utilization of MRI, the heating due to ultrasound can be reliably monitored. The technology of MRgFUS is considered the best ablating modality of deep-seated targets and therefore is becoming an effective and attractive engineering-based surgical procedure.
Employment
| Organization | Position | Location | Start | End |
Graduate research assistant | Tucson, USA | January 1, 1988 | January 1, 1993 | |
Research associate | Boston, USA | January 1, 1993 | January 1, 1994 | |
Assistant Professor | Indianapolis, USA | January 1, 1994 | January 1, 1995 | |
Assistant Professor | Nicosia, Cyprus | January 1, 1995 | December 30, 1999 | |
Associate professor | Nicosia, Cyprus | January 1, 2000 | January 1, 2007 | |
Associate Professor | Limassol, Cyprus | January 1, 2012 | December 30, 2017 | |
Professor | Limassol, Cyprus | December 30, 2017 | ||
Associate Professor | Nicosia, Cyprus | January 1, 2007 | January 1, 2012 | |
Affiliation
| Organisation |
Qualification
| Title | Department | Awarding Institution | Thesis title | Start | End |
Ph.D. Electrical Engineering | Electrical Engineering | University of Arizona, Tucson, USA | Theoretical and experimental evaluation of high temperature ultrasound in cancer therapy | December 30, 1993 | |
M.S. Electrical Engineering | Electrical Engineering | University of Arizona, Tucson, USA | Characterization techniques for contaminated gate oxide | December 30, 1990 | |
B.S. Electrical Engineering | Electrical Engineering | University of Arizona, Tucson, USA | December 30, 1988 | ||
Diploma of technician | Electrical Engineering | Higher Technical Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus | December 30, 1987 | ||