Ioannis Akoumianakis

A bit about yourself

I come from Greece, where I studied medicine, and that is when my interest in research was first established. From a young age, I always had diverse interests ranging from physical sciences to medicine, and my career so far reflects my ongoing effort to self-improve, combine my parallel interests and acquire experience in both clinical medicine and biomedical research.

Summarise the research in your DPhil

I graduated from the School of Medicine, University of Crete, Greece, and then I undertook my DPhil in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Radcliffe Department of Medicine.

My research broadly investigated the crosstalk of metabolism and adipose tissue biology with cardiovascular disease. My research approach was translational, using fresh intact tissue models ex vivo, complemented by primary cell culture and in vivo animal models, to propose novel mechanistic links between obesity, diabetes and atherosclerosis.

As a result of my work, I first characterised Wnt5a, an adipokine, as a novel, obesity-induced regulator of vascular oxidative stress and redox-sensitive migration of vascular smooth muscle cells in humans with atherosclerosis.

My work also was the first to demonstrate that the human vasculature is characterised by molecular insulin resistance even in the absence of pre-diabetes or diabetes, and insulin has janus-like effects in this context, which largely depend upon downstream insulin sensitisation. This piece of work may have significant implications for insulin-treated diabetics with atherosclerosis, as it highlights the need for concomitant insulin sensitisation in such patients.

Your current job and the path you took to get there

I am currently a Clinical Lecturer in the Radcliffe Department of Medicine. My job includes both academic (teaching and research) and clinical duties, and I am also training as cardiologist.

Following my DPhil completion, I returned to clinical training by undertaking general medicine training at the University Hospital of Heraklion, Crete, Greece, followed by an Academic Clinical Fellowship in Cardiology at the University of Birmingham and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. After acquisition of my core clinical skills, and maintaining some published research record, I applied for an Academic Clinical Lectureship at the University of Oxford, and was appointed to the post in August 2023.

What helped you and how you decided to get into this area

Throughout my career, I have been influenced by several factors that have ultimately contributed to my current job.
Internal drive and motivation has always been at the core of my efforts, as has been my ambition to combine clinical medicine with research. This drive has helped me take ambitious decisions and 'calculated risks' that have strengthened my professional competences.

In terms of specific area of interest, I chose cardiology early on in my career, mainly due to the global burden of cardiovascular disease and the multitude of options the field has to offer from a clinical point of view (i.e. emergency cases, interventional cardiology, lots of imaging modalities incorporated into the specialty) and research wise (lots of funding opportunities and lots of technological advances facilitating cardiovascular research).

In terms of crucial events in my career, I strongly believe that starting my postgraduate academic career with doctoral studies in a leading institution such as the University of Oxford was the single most important step in my career. This opened the door to accessing a huge wealth of data and expertise, as well as a massive scientific network for learning and collaboration. This has resulted in high impact awards and publications as well as my maintaining a high research standard (in terms of goals or ambitions) throughout my career, which is always highly valued in an academic career.

Further to this, applying for academic clinical training posts has greatly facilitated my career, as it has given me protected time to maintain a good research record while not compromising my clinical training. Combining research with full-time clinical practice is always challenging, and academic training posts in the UK are customised to allow precisely that.

Anything extra you found you needed to know, learn along the way or wish you had done differently

Combining research with clinical practice is extremely challenging, especially considering the competence-based clinical training curriculum which requires lots of effort to acquire the necessary evidence for clinical progression. I have achieved both academic and clinical progression through a process of trial and error, and I find that the earlier one plans one's next clinical/academic job steps, the better (i.e. early contact with supervisors, early definition of a research project, focus on project feasibility given time constraints, early acquisition of clinical evidence etc).