Vasilis Raptis

Thesis title: Dissecting the genetic risk factors for delirium and identification of therapeutic targets

Biography

Background

Vasilis studied Biological Sciences, with a focus on molecular biology and genetics, at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece (2015 to 2020). He obtained his MSc in Quantitative Genetics from the University of Edinburgh in 2021, receiving the Douglas Falconer Prize awarded to the best performing student in the MSc. He gained research experience in human quantitative genetics in Albert Tenesa’s lab through his MSc thesis, focusing on the host genetic background of COVID-19 risk and his subsequent research assistant role (2021 to 2022), working on the genetic and transcriptomic aspect of partner similarity in humans in the UK. He is currently working towards his PhD, funded by the Advanced Care Research Centre at University of Edinburgh and the Dunhill Medical Trust, under the supervision of Prof. Albert Tenesa (Roslin Institute), Dr. Tim Cannings (School of Mathematics) and Prof. Alasdair MacLullich (Usher Institute). His project is aiming to understand how our genome in conjunction with other “omic” factors can affect our risk of developing delirium.

Qualifications

  • PhD with Integrated Study (2022-present), University of Edinburgh, UK
  • MSc in Quantitative Genetics and Genome Analysis (2020-21), University of Edinburgh, UK
  • BSc in Biology (2015-20), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece 

Undergraduate teaching

  • "Biology 1A: Variation" (BILG08020), School of Biological Sciences. (2024-2025)

Supported undergraduate biology students in acquiring basic field work skills, including observation and measurement, and adhering to best research practices.

Postgraduate teaching

  • “Linkage and Association in Genomic Analysis” (PGBI11086), Quantitative Genetics Suite of MSc programmes, School of Biological Sciences. (2023-2025)

Demonstrated hands‑on computer practicals for the ‘Linkage and Association in Genomic Analysis’ module; focusing on widely used quantitative genetics methods, including linkage analysis, QTL mapping, GWAS, polygenic risk scores, and heritability estimations.

Past PhD students supervised

  • Mingxuan Wang - MSc Quantitative Genetics (2025)

Designed and co‑supervised Quantitative Genetics Msc summer research project titled ‘The Genetic Architecture of Mortality‑Linked Imputed Human Gut Microbiome’.

Research summary

My research interests lie into studying the multi- “omic” background of complex diseases in humans, through quantitative genetic and machine learning methods. I am also interested in the application of genomics in improving healthcare practices, especially regarding people in later life.  

Affiliated research centres

Project activity

PhD:

My project aims to uncover the complex nature of delirium’s pathophysiology, by incorporating large-scale molecular data (genomic, proteomic, epigenomic) for the discovery and validation of delirium biological risk factors. Better characterisation of such factors can pave the way for personalised medicine efforts to predict, prevent and treat delirium.

 

Past projects: 

  • Actively participated in an international collaboration between University of Edinburgh, Karolinska Institute, and BioBank Japan aiming to identify sex‑specific genetic effects that control plasma protein levels (pQTLs) across diverse ancestries. My role involved assessing sex-specific causal effects of plasma proteins on health disorders and on disease onset. (2024 ‑ 2025).
  • Investigated how the effect of various types of polypharmacy on dementia risk can be modified by individuals’ polygenic risk for dementia. This work, part of my PhD programme’s rotation scheme, involved quality control, data‑processing and statistical modeling of genomic and prescription data in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 dataset (2023)

Conference details

Oral presentations:

  • European Delirium Association Annual Meeting (Nov 2025), Hamburg, Germany
  • Alliance for Complex Trait Genetics 20th Meeting (March 2025), Royal Society of Edinburgh, Edinburgh UK
  • The Next Generation of Genomics Symposium (May 2022), online

Posters:

  • European Geriatrics Medicine Society (EuGMS) congress (Sept. 2025), Reykjavik, Iceland
  •  Biology of Genomes meeting (May 2025), Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, USA
  • 7th International Conference in Quantitative Genetics (ICG7) (July 2024), Vienna, Austria
  • Edinburgh Next Generation of Genomics Symposium (ENGoGS) (Oct 2024), Edinburgh, UK ‑ best poster award

Organising commitees:

  • Advanced Care Research Centre (ACRC) Student Conference (April 2024), Edinburgh, UK
  • Edinburgh Next Generation of Genomics Symposium (ENGoGS) (Oct 2023), Edinburgh, UK

First author:

  • Raptis, V., Bhak, Y., Cannings, T. I., MacLullich, A. M. J., & Tenesa, A. (2025). Dissecting the genetic and proteomic risk factors for delirium. Nature Aging, 6(1), 235–251. doi: 10.1038/s43587-025-01018-6
  • Bhak, Y., Raptis, V., He, Y., et al. (2025). Identification and replication of sex‑dimorphic protein quantitative trait loci across multiple ancestries and their associations with diseases. Scientific Reports, 15(1), 31721. doi: 10.1038/s41598‑025‑10031‑z
  • Raptis, V., Mullin, D., Syed, S., Deary, I. J., Cox, S. R., Russ, T. C., & Luciano, M. (2024). Interplay between polygenic effects and polypharmacy on dementia. MedRxiv, 2024.11.01.24316584. doi: 10.1101/2024.11.01.24316584

Co-author:

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