• Doctoral Studies
• San Francisco, California, USA

About Me

My name is Nikos Kyritsis, and I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), working in the field of spinal cord and spinal column injuries. I was born and raised in Nafpaktos and later studied in the Department of Biological Applications and Technologies at the University of Ioannina.

After completing my Undergraduate Studies, I began my PhD at the International Max Planck Research School in Dresden, Germany, where I worked on brain cell regeneration after injury and the molecular mechanisms that regulate this process. During my Doctoral Studies, my interests broadened to include injuries of the central nervous system more generally, not just the brain.

For this reason, after completing my PhD, I joined UCSF and the Brain and Spinal Injury Center, where I investigate molecular mechanisms of inflammation in the spinal cord and systemically, working with both animal models and patients with spinal cord injuries.

Why I Chose My Career

As a high‑school student, Biology was by far my favorite subject, so choosing what to study was not difficult. My interest in research developed later, during my undergraduate years, when I experienced the excitement of experimental discovery. The first time I saw something under the microscope and my supervisor told me it had never been reported in the literature, I immediately knew what I wanted to do in my career.

Why I Became a Volunteer at R.E.A.L Science

Eleni Sinopoulou — whose lab collaborates closely with mine — told me about the platform, and I was genuinely excited. I have always believed that in Greece, secondary education is quite disconnected from academia, and this platform is a fantastic opportunity to help bridge that gap..