Center for Nanotechnology and Nanotoxicology

Dimitrios Bitounis

Title and Affiliation

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Environmental Health
Center for Nanotechnology and Nanotoxicology

Funding Source

HSPH-Cyprus Program (HCP)

Contact Info

Phone:617-432-1590
Email: dbitounis@hsph.harvard.edu
Office: SPH1-1307

Short Bio

Dimitrios completed his undergraduate studies in pharmaceutical sciences at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece). He then obtained his MRes in Nanomedicine from University College London (UK) where he evaluated the in vitro and in vivo pathogenicity of graphene oxide sheets. In his PhD at the Faculté de Medicine de Saint-Etienne (France), he developed methods for the detection and characterization of metal nanoparticles in human follicular and seminal fluids as well as bronchoalveolar lavage fluids from patients. Dimitrios joined Dr. Philip Demokritou’s Center for Nanotechnology and Nanotoxicology in the  Molecular and Integrative Physiological Sciences group in January 2018 as a postdoctoral fellow to study the behavior of 2D materials in physiologically relevant fluids and how these may govern their in vitro toxicity.

Research Interests

  • Investigation of nanomaterials in biological samples
  • Evaluation of in vitro nanomaterial toxicity
  • Characterization of 2D nanomaterials in physiologically relevant material

Selected Publications

  • Bitounis D, Parviz D, Cao X, Amadei CA, Vecitis CD, Sunderland E, Thrall B, Fang M, Strano MS, Demokritou P. Synthesis and physicochemical transformations of size-sorted graphene oxide during simulated digestion and its toxicological assessment against an in vitro model of the human intestinal epithelium. Small. 2020 Mar 20. 1907640.
  • O’Connor BB, Grevesse T, Zimmerman JF, Ardoña HAM, Jimenez JA, Bitounis D, Demokritou P, Parker KK. Human brain microvascular endothelial cell pairs model tissue-level blood-brain barrier function. Integrative Biology. 2020 March 20.
  • Duan Y, Coreas R, Liu Y, Bitounis D, Zhang Z, Parviz D, Strano M, Demokritou P, Zhong W. Prediction of protein corona on nanomaterials by machine learning using novel descriptions. NanoImpact. 2020 Jan 16. 17:100207. doi: 10.1016/j.impact.2020.100207
  • Touloumes GJ, Ardoña HAM, Casalino EK, Zimmerman JF, Chantre CO, Bitounis D, Demokritou P, Parker KK. Mapping 2D- and 3D-distributions of metal/metal oxide nanoparticles within cleared human ex vivo skin tissues. NanoImpact. 2020 Jan 6. 17:100208
  • Eweje F, Ardoña HAM, Zimmerman JF, O’Connor BB, Ahn S, Grevesse T, Rivera KN, Bitounis D, Demokritou P, Parker KK.  Quantifying the effects of engineered nanomaterials on endothelial cell architecture and vascular barrier integrity using a cell pair model. Nanoscale. 2019 September 24; 11: 17878-17893.
  • Cao X, DeLoid G, Bitounis D, De La Torre-Roche R, White JC, Zhang Z, Guan Ho C, Ng KW, Eitzer BD, Demokritou P. Co-exposure to the food additives SiO2 (E551) or TiO2 (E171) and the pesticide boscalid increases cytotoxicity and bioavailability of the pesticide in a tri-culture small intestinal epithelium model: potential health implications. Environmental Science: Nano. 2019 Aug 8; 6(9):2786-2800.
  • Bitounis D, Pyrgiotakis G, Bousfield D, Demokritou P. Dispersion preparation, characterization, and dosimetric analysis of cellulose nano-fibrils and nano-crystals: Implications for cellular toxicological studies. NanoImpact. 2019 May 31. 15:100171.
  • Salari, M., Bitounis, D., Bhattacharya, K., Pyrgiotakis, G., Zhang, Z., Purington, E., Gramlich, W., Grondin, Y., Rogers, R., Bousfield, D., Demokritou, P. Development & characterization of fluorescently tagged nanocellulose for nanotoxicological studies. Environ. Sci.: Nano. 2019 April; (5):1516-26.
  • Bitounis D, Barnier V, Guibert C, Pourchez J, Forest V, Boudard D, Hochepied JF, Chelle P, Vergnon J-M, Cottier M. A method for the quantitative extraction of gold nanoparticles from human bronchoalveolar lavage fluids through a glycerol gradient. Nanoscale. 2018 Feb;10(6):2955-69.
  • Bitounis D, Klein JP, Mery L, El-Merhie A, Forest V, Boudard D, Pourchez J, Cottier M. Ex vivo detection and quantification of gold nanoparticles in human seminal and follicular fluids. Analyst. 2018 Jan;143(2):475-86.
  • Forest V, Vergnon JM, Guibert C, Bitounis D, Leclerc L, Sarry G, Pourchez J. Metal load assessment in patient pulmonary lavages: towards a comprehensive mineralogical analysis including the nano-sized fraction. Nanotoxicology. 2017 Nov-Dec;11(9-10):1211-24.
  • Bitounis D, Pourchez J, Forest V, Boudard D, Cottier M, Klein JP. Detection and analysis of nanoparticles in patients: A critical review of the status quo of clinical nanotoxicology. Biomaterials. 2016 Jan:76:302-12.
  • Bitounis D, Ali-Boucetta H, Hong BH, Min DH, Kostarelos K. Prospects and challenges of graphene in biomedical applications. Adv Mater. 2013 Apr;25(16):2258-68.
  • Ali-Boucetta H, Bitounis D, Raveendran-Nair R, Servant A, Van den Bossche J, Kostarelos K. Purified graphene oxide dispersions lack in vitro cytotoxicity and in vivo pathogenicity. Adv Healthc Mater. 2013 Mar;2(3)433-41.