I would say KAUST is a lifetime experience. Do not miss it.

Dimitrios Kleftogiannis obtained his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science under the supervision of Professor Panagiotis Kalnis at InfoCloud Research Group in King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), in 2016.

Research Interests

Dimitrios works mostly on knowledge discovery technologies with applications in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. ​His research interests include Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Data Analysis of NGS-derived data. He has worked extensively on the prediction of distal DNA regulatory elements focusing on the category of enhancers. He is also involved in many other projects related to pathway-based inference of host-pathogen interactions as well as the prediction of miRNA genes and targets.

Developed tools and deployed datasets

Professional Profile

  • 2015 Oct / 2015 Dec Research trainee at RIKEN Yokohama labs. This project is related to enhancer/promoter exploration using CAGE, ChIP-seq and ChIA-PET data. The scope is to develop a new methodology for analyzing clinical data produced by RIKEN labs.
  • 2013 Nov / 2014 Oct  Research assistant at Computational Biology Lab at the National University of Singapore (NUS). During his internship in NUS  studied host-pathogen interactions at the metabolic pathway level. Outcome was the development of an algorithm called Hi-Jack, which identifies interconnections between humans, and Mycobacterium Tuberculosis based on the idea of metabolite hijacking. He was under the supervision of Limsoon Wong.
  • 2011 Fall/Spring semesters computer science lecturer at vocational training institute of Pyrgos-Greece.
  • 2010 Fall semester Instructor of computer science seminars at Greek Trade Development Center.
  • 2006 summer Internship at the National Electrical Company (Greece)​.
  • 2005 summer Internship at the National Electrical Company (Greece).

Education Profile

  • Ph.D. in Computer Science at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, (2011-2016).
  • Masters Degree in Informatics for Life Sciences, Medical School, University of Patras-Greece, (2009-2011).
  • Diploma in Computer Engineering, Computer Engineering and Informatics Department, University of Patras-Greece, (2003-2009).

Professional Memberships

  • ​​Reviewer to Bioinformatics, Scientific Reports, Artificial Intelligence Review​ , Journal of Biomedical Informatics, Plos ONE, Applied Soft Computing, Journal of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology​
  • ​Computer Engineering and Informatics Department-University of Patras-Greece.

Awards and Distinctions

  • 2003-2007: Undergraduate Scholarship by John S. Latsis Foundation.
  • 2010-2011: Postgraduate Scholarship by John S. Latsis Foundation.

Selected Publications

Kleftogiannis D, Kalnis P, Bajic VB (2015) Progress and challenges in bioinformatics approaches for enhancer identification. Briefings in Bioinformatics 17: 967–979. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bib/bbv101.
Kleftogiannis, D., Kalnis, P., & Bajic, V. B. (2013). Comparing Memory-Efficient Genome Assemblers on Stand-Alone and Cloud Infrastructures. PLoS ONE, 8(9), e75505. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0075505
Kleftogiannis, D., Kalnis, P., & Bajic, V. B. (2014). DEEP: a general computational framework for predicting enhancers. Nucleic Acids Research, 43(1), e6–e6. doi:10.1093/nar/gku1058
Kleftogiannis, D., Wong, L., Archer, J. A. C., & Kalnis, P. (2015). Hi-Jack: a novel computational framework for pathway-based inference of host–pathogen interactions. Bioinformatics, 31(14), 2332–2339. doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btv138