Professor Edna Yamasaki

Prof. Edna Yamasaki Patrikiou (MSc, MD, PhD) is a trained medical doctor and holds an MSc and PhD in Biophysics (Neurobiology). She is a Professor at the Department of Health Sciences.

She is currently the Vice-President for the Cyprus Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism, the editor-in-chief of the PANR eJournal for Physical Activity, Nutrition and Rehabilitation and a member of the Parallel Parliament of the Republic of Cyprus in the Committee on Environment, Ecology-Sustainability and Health.

Previously she held the position of Vice Rector for Academic Affairs at the University of Nicosia, participating in a number of important administrative and academic committees, chairing the University Internal Quality Assurance Committee and the Erasmus Office, and being a member of the University of Nicosia Senate and Council. She was also an Ambassador of Tourism for the Republic of Cyprus until 2018.

Prof. Yamasaki Patrikiou has established a fine record of teaching and research in her native Brazil, the USA and Cyprus. She has taught courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels, among others, in Human Anatomy and Physiology, Molecular Basis for Neurochemical Differentiation in the Central Nervous System, Retinal Neurochemical Seminars, Fundamental Neurobiology, Fundamental Neurosciences and Physiology and Biophysics. She has also supervised MSc and PhD candidates in Brazil and in Cyprus. She is actively involved in local and international projects and has held grants from the Brazilian, Cyprus and European funding agencies. As a result of her involvement in research, she has published extensively in the area of the nervous system and in public health and the environment.

Prof. Yamasaki Patrikiou got her first degree in Medicine in 1988 from the School of Medicine, Federal Fluminense University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, followed by an MSc. (1990) and PhD (1994) degrees in Biophysics (Neurobiology) from the Institute of Biophysics Carlos Chagas, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She did her postdoctoral training at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA; the Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA; the University of Cyprus and the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics in Nicosia, Cyprus.

Her research interests include (a) the Development of the Central Nervous System (Morphological and Electrophysiological aspects, Plasticity Role of Neurotransmitters, Neuromodulators and Pharmacological Agents), (b) the Developmental and Degenerative Diseases of the Central Nervous System, (c) Drugs of Abuse in the Developing Brain, (d) Aging, (e) Development of New Materials with Potential Biological Applications, and (f) Environment, Water and Health.

She is a member of the following professional associations: (a) Society for Neuroscience (USA) member since 1989, (b) Brazilian Society for Neuroscience member since 1989 (c) IBRO (through the SFN and the Brazilian Society for Neuroscience) (d) AAAS (USA) member since 2008 and (e) Hellenic Society for Neuroscience (since 2010); ESPEN (EU since 2016) and CySPEN (Cyprus, since 2016).