Ioannis Petrakis obtained his medical degree from the University of Crete, Department of Health Sciences,
Heraklion Medical School. Subsequently, from 2009 to 2014, he conducted extensive basic research on various experimental models of kidney disease, such as systemic lupus erythematosus nephritis, diabetes mellitus, and membranous nephropathy. This research was conducted at the Nephrology Research Laboratory of the Medical School of the University of Crete, under the guidance of Professor Evgenios Dafnis. In 2014, he successfully defended his doctoral thesis on “Mechanisms of renal disease in familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy.” This research used transgenic mouse models of the disease and was conducted in collaboration with Professor Ken-Ichi Yamamura (Kumamoto, Japan) and Professor Maria J. Saraiva (Porto, Portugal). For this work, he received the Young Investigator Award in 2011 at the VIII International Symposium on Familial Amyloid Polyneuropathy in Kumamoto, Japan. In 2014, he presented his work on ATTR at a symposium on “Animal models and cell culture systems of amyloidosis” as a guest speaker at the annual meeting of the American Society of Nephrology in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His career in internal medicine began in 2012 at the University Hospital of Heraklion and continued until 2014 under the supervision of Professor Georgios Samonis. In 2014, he expanded his clinical training in nephrology, internal medicine, and kidney transplantation at the Medical Center of Saarland University, Department of Internal Medicine, Nephrology, and Hypertension, under the supervision of Professor Dr. Danilo Fliser.
Ioannis obtained his specialty in internal medicine and nephrology in 2019 in Saarland, Germany. After completing his specialization, he worked as a consultant in nephrology and internal medicine at the Medical Center of Saarland University until 2021. At the same time, he was involved in various research projects, including the effect of DKK3 on the progression of chronic kidney disease. In 2022, Ioannis returned to Greece.
He worked as a nephrology consultant in the Nephrology Department of the University Hospital of Heraklion until December 2024. In December 2024, he was appointed as an assistant professor of nephrology at the University of Crete where he currently has teaching, research and educational duties.
He is an active member of the educational committee of the Hellenic Society of Nephrology, the editorial board of the journal Hellenic Nephrology, and an academic editor and reviewer for foreign-language scientific journals. He is a member of the Hellenic Nephrology Society, the European Renal Association, the American Society of Nephrology and the International Society of Nephrology. He actively participates in international phase II & III clinical studies of the Nephrology Department of the University Hospital of Heraklion. He has served as a member of the organizing comitees of many national congresses. He contributes to international and national nephrology conferences both as a guest speaker and as a presenter of scientific work.
Together with the director of the Nephrology Department, Associate Professor Konstantinos Stylianou, they have launched an effort to establish translational research in nephrology through the operation of the Nephrology Research Laboratory with the aim of providing personalized medicine in the diagnosis and treatment of renal disease.