Research
Dr Aphrodite Vasilaki is a Senior lecturer and previously an independently-funded Research into Ageing Fellow. She graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Molecular Biology from Liverpool John Moores University in 1999 and completed her PhD in the Department of Medicine and School of Biological Sciences at the University of Liverpool in 2003. She has extensive experience of studying skeletal muscle ageing in experimental models. She has developed expertise in the quantification and assessment of axon-neuromuscular junction (NMJ) structure in ageing muscle. She has examined the role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) during ageing for over 20 years predominantly in muscle and neuronal cells.
More recently, she has focused her work on studying the effect of maternal/neonatal protein restriction on the development of the neuromuscular and musculoskeletal systems and the life long impact that protein restriction in early life may have on these systems. She has now established her own research group in this area.
In 2012, Aphrodite received the Catherine Pasquier award and more recently the Leopold Flohé Redox Pioneer Young Investigator Award (2025), the only UK recipient of the latter.
Research grants
FATIMAH AHMED SALEM ALMUBARAK Bench fees
ROYAL EMBASSY OF SAUDI ARABIA CULTURAL BUREAU IN LONDON (UK)
October 2025 - September 2026
Atilla Emre Altinpinar/ 201630914 (bench fees)
TURKISH EMBASSY (LONDON)
September 2022 - August 2026
Almoatasm Balah S M Saltan/201590645 (bench fees)
LIBYAN EMBASSY IN LONDON🚩
September 2022 - September 2026
An interdisciplinary ageing alliance: cellular metabolism over a life-course in socioeconomic disadvantaged populations
BIOTECHNOLOGY & BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL
February 2022 - February 2024
The role of circadian rhythms in Collagen VI related Myopathies
MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY UK (UK)
July 2022 - November 2024
Bench fees for Ufuk Ersoy / 201443759
TURKISH EMBASSY (LONDON)
February 2021 - January 2025
Resident senescent cells drive the ageing phenotype of skeletal muscle
BRITISH SOCIETY FOR RESEARCH ON AGEING (UK)
September 2015 - October 2019
2014 allocation - Wellcome ISSF non clinical fellowships
WELLCOME TRUST (UK)
May 2015 - October 2018
Determining the mechanism responsible for frailty in older people: opportunities for novel interventions.
THE TERESA ROSENBAUM GOLDEN CHARITABLE TRUST (THE ROSETREES TRUST) (UK)
October 2016 - September 2019
microRNA-based interventions against loss of muscle mass and function resulting from in utero and early post-natal protein restriction
BIOTECHNOLOGY & BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL
May 2017 - April 2020
Neuromuscular redox homeostasis in mice lacking SOD1 and aging wild type mice
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (USA)
September 2016 - April 2022
Maternal protein intake as a determinant of the total number of motor units and muscle fibres
THE PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY (UK)
November 2014 - October 2015
Deficits in motor nerve function mediate failed muscle regeneration during ageing.
RESEARCH INTO AGEING
February 2010 - March 2013
Motor unit remodelling contributes to the age-related loss of skeletal muscle fibres
MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
June 2015 - June 2018
Denervation of small numbers of fibres during ageing leads to dysregulation of ROS and functional changes in whole skeletal muscles
BIOTECHNOLOGY & BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL
April 2013 - March 2016