{{Short description|Greek academic}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Dimitris Anastassiou | image = | image_size = 180px | birth_date = 1952 | birth_place = Athens, Greece | field = Electrical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Systems Biology | workplaces = Columbia University | alma_mater = National Technical University of Athens<br>University of California, Berkeley | doctoral_advisor = | doctoral_students = | known_for = MPEG-2 technology | prizes = IEEE Fellow }}
'''Dimitris Anastassiou''' is an electrical engineer and Charles Batchelor Professor of Electrical Engineering in the Columbia University School of Engineering. Anastassiou's earlier work focuses primarily on signal and information processing and reverse engineering. His more recent work involves interdisciplinary research, specifically in systems biology, with investigators at Columbia University Medical Center. Anastassiou is Fellow of the IEEE for contributions to video technology, developing high-performance digital image and video coding techniques<ref> {{Cite web| url=https://www.comsoc.org/membership/ieee-fellows/1998| title = IEEE Fellows 1998 | IEEE Communications Society}} </ref> . He is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and recipient of both the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award and the IBM Outstanding Innovation Award.
Anastassiou has made significant advances in the areas of digital technology. His research resulted in Columbia being the only university to hold patent in MPEG-2 technology, a crucial technique used in all types of digital televisions, DVDs, satellite TV, HDTV, digital cable systems, computer video, and other interactive media.<ref name="moore" /><ref name="evarts">{{cite web|last1=Evarts|first1=Holly|title=New Computational Model Can Predict Breast Cancer Survival|url=http://engineering.columbia.edu/new-computational-model-can-predict-breast-cancer-survival|publisher=Columbia Engineering|accessdate=11 April 2016}}</ref>
In 2013, a team led by Anastassiou won the DREAM Breast Cancer Prognosis Challenge with a genetic model that could predict cancer prognoses with 76% accuracy.<ref name="mccarthy">{{cite journal|last1=McCarthy|first1=Nicola|title=Rising to the challenge|journal=Nature Reviews Cancer|date=May 2013|volume=13|issue=6|doi=10.1038/nrc3530|pmid=23640208|page=378|s2cid=205469727 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Anastassiou was born in Athens, Greece in 1952. He received his Bachelor of Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens.<ref name="hdtv" /> Upon moving to the United States, Anastassiou earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.<ref name="bio" /><ref name="hdtv" />
== Career == === Electrical engineering (1979-1990s) === Dimitris Anastassiou is widely recognized in the engineering community. He is an IEEE Fellow, the recipient of IBM Outstanding Innovation Award, and a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator.<ref name="bio">{{cite web|title=Dimitris Anastassiou Biography|url=http://www.ee.columbia.edu/~anastas/|publisher=Columbia Engineering|accessdate=11 April 2016}}</ref> Anastassiou is also the recipient of the Columbia University Great Teacher Award.<ref name = "bio" />
Between 1979 and 1983, Dimitris Anastassiou was a Research Staff member at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY.<ref name="bio" /> While at IBM, Anastassiou worked on the development of IBM videoconference software.<ref name="hdtv">{{cite journal|last1=Anastassiou|first1=Dimitris|title=High Definition Television|journal=IEEE Communications Magazine|volume=34|issue=6|date=June 1996|page=108|doi=10.1109/MCOM.1996.506817|s2cid=40143089 }}</ref> In 1983, Anastassiou joined the faculty of Columbia University.<ref name="bio" />
Anastassiou was the former director of Columbia University's Image and Advanced Television Laboratory and director of Columbia University's Genomic Information Systems Laboratory. He came to national prominence when he, with his student Fermi Wang developed the MPEG-2 algorithm for transmitting high quality audio and video over limited bandwidth in the early 1990s.<ref name="mccaughey" /><ref>{{cite web|title=Modern Greece: Science and Technology|url=http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/new/Engineering.html|publisher=Hellenica World|accessdate=11 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303171417/http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/new/Engineering.html|archive-date=3 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="convocation">{{cite web|last1=Peña-Moras|first1=Feniosky|title=Dean Feniosky Peña-Mora's Convocation Address|url=http://engineering.columbia.edu/dean-feniosky-pen-moras-convocation-address|website=Columbia Engineering|publisher=Columbia University|accessdate=11 April 2016}}</ref> As a result of his MPEG patent, Columbia University became the only university in the MPEG LA patent pool. Revenue from the patent pool allowed Anastassiou to pursue interdisciplinary research in other areas.<ref name="mccaughey" />
=== Transition to systems biology (2000s) === In the early 2000s, Anastassiou moved away from his previous work in DVDs and compression and into Systems Biology.<ref name="moore" /> Anastassiou refers to his publications in engineering and signal processing as those from a "previous lifetime".<ref name="evarts" /> Anastassiou is currently a faculty member of the Center for the Multiscale Analysis of Genomic and Cellular Networks.<ref name="bio" />
In 2009, Anastassiou won an $800,000 award from the National Institute of Health jointly with Maria Karayiorgou of Columbia University Medical Center for a project entitled "Computational discovery of synergistic mechanisms responsible for psychiatric disorders", aiming to discover the biological mechanisms of psychological disorders such as schizophrenia.<ref name="nih">{{cite web|title=Prof. Anastassiou Wins NIH Award|url=http://engineering.columbia.edu/prof-anastassiou-wins-nih-award|publisher=Columbia Engineering|accessdate=11 April 2016}}</ref> The project aims to investigate genetic variations based on genome-wide association data for psychiatric disorders to elucidate genetic mechanisms behind schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.<ref name="nih" />
In 2013, Anastassiou was inducted as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. As of 2013, Dimitris Anastassiou holds 14 U.S. and 8 international patents, which have so far generated up to $100 million in revenues for Columbia University.<ref name="nai">{{cite web|last1=Farmer|first1=Melanie A.|title=National Academy of Inventors Taps Prof. Anastassiou as New Fellow|url=http://engineering.columbia.edu/national-academy-inventors-taps-prof-anastassiou-new-fellow|publisher=Columbia Engineering|accessdate=11 April 2016}}</ref><ref name="mccaughey">{{cite book|last1=McCaughey|first1=Robert|title=A Lever Long Enough: A History of Columbia's School of Engineering and Applied Science Since 1864|date=2014|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|isbn=9780231166881|page=198}}</ref>
==== Breast Cancer Prognosis Challenge ==== In 2013, a team led by Anastassiou won the Breast Cancer Prognosis Challenge (BCC), run by Sage Bionetworks and Dialogue for Reverse Engineering Assessments and Methods (DREAM), which challenged teams to develop models to predict breast cancer survival rates based on a large gene expression and clinical feature dataset.<ref name="reuters">{{cite news|title=Two Science Translational Medicine Reports: DREAM and Sage Bionetworks Tap into the Wisdom of the Crowd to Fight the Challenge of Breast Cancer Prognosis and Treatment|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/wa-sage-bionetworks-idUSnBw176436a+100+BSW20130417|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422011440/http://www.reuters.com/article/wa-sage-bionetworks-idUSnBw176436a+100+BSW20130417|url-status=dead|archive-date=22 April 2016|accessdate=11 April 2016|work=Reuters|date=17 April 2013}}</ref> Anastassiou's team won the challenge despite being smaller and despite competing against teams from companies such as IBM, by taking an approach that was "out-of-the-box" and "completely novel".<ref name="scientist" />
His group's submission used a model which relied on the signatures of three metagenes, which Anastassiou's group had previously associated with several cancers. Prior to the challenge, Anastassiou had been doing research on attractor metagenes, genetic signatures expressed nearly identically between different cancers.<ref name="moore">{{cite news|last1=Moore|first1=Elizabeth Armstrong|title=A new way to predict breast cancer survival|url=http://www.cnet.com/news/a-new-way-to-predict-breast-cancer-survival/|accessdate=11 April 2016|work=CNET|date=18 April 2013}}</ref> The model predicts with 76 percent accuracy which of two breast cancer patients will live longer, which is far better than any models previously available.<ref name="scientist">{{cite news|last1=Swartz|first1=Aimee|title=May the Best Model Win|url=http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/35836/title/May-the-Best-Model-Win/|accessdate=11 April 2016|work=The Scientist|date=4 June 2013}}</ref>
Of the results, Anastassiou said: {{blockquote| These signatures manifest themselves in specific genes that are turned on together in the tissues of some patients in many different cancer types... If these general cancer signatures are useful in breast cancer, as we proved in this challenge, then why not in other types of cancer as well? I think that the most significant -- and exciting -- implication of our work is the hope that these signatures can be used for improved diagnostic, prognostic, and eventually, therapeutic products, applicable to multiple cancers.<ref name="moore" /> }}
The findings from the competition were published in ''Science Translational Medicine''.<ref name="cheng">{{cite journal|last1=Cheng|first1=Wei-Yi|last2=Yang|first2=Tai-Hsien Ou|last3=Anastassiou|first3=Dimitris|title=Development of a Prognostic Model for Breast Cancer Survival in an Open Challenge Environment|journal=Science Translational Medicine|date=17 April 2013|volume=5|issue=181|page=181|doi=10.1126/scitranslmed.3005974|pmid=23596202|doi-access=free}}</ref> While the results are not yet ready for clinical use,<ref name="rettner" /> Anastassiou's group is currently working to extend these findings to predict whether patients need further treatment.<ref name="laino">{{cite web|last1=Laino|first1=Charlene|title=Breast Cancer: 'Geek Sandbox' Holds Clues to Survival|url=http://www.medpagetoday.com/TheGuptaGuide/Oncology/38514|website=MedPage|publisher=The Gupta Guide|accessdate=11 April 2016}}</ref><ref name="rettner">{{cite news|last1=Rettner|first1=Rachael|title=Breast Cancer Survival Predicted By Computer Model|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/17/breast-cancer-survival-computer-model_n_3104428.html|accessdate=11 April 2016|work=Huffington Post|date=17 April 2013}}</ref>
The research for the competition was partially funded by Anastassiou's patents in DVD encoding.<ref name="moore" />
==See also== *Digital Technology
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [http://www.engineering.columbia.edu/web/faculty Columbia Engineering Faculty] * [http://engineering.columbia.edu/web/newsletter Columbia Engineering Newsletter] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20100814023111/http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/new/Engineering.html Hellenica News] * [http://engineering.columbia.edu Columbia Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Anastassiou, Dimitris}} Category:Fellows of the IEEE Category:Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science faculty Category:National Technical University of Athens alumni Category:UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni Category:Living people Category:1952 births Category:Engineers from Athens Category:Greek electrical engineers Category:Greek emigrants to the United States