1. Curriculum Vitae. Elena Daniela AFLOREI, MD, MSc
Elena Daniela AFLOREI, MD, MSc
Contact Details
 Address: Centre for Endocrinology, William Harvey Research Institute,
Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry,
Queen Mary University of London
1st floor John Vane Science Building,
Charterhouse Square, London, EC1M 6BQ, UK
 Phone: 07864114467
 E-mail: e.d.aflorei@qmul.ac.uk
Personal Details
 Date of Birth: 7 August 1978
 Nationality: Romanian (EU Citizen)
Current activity
 09.01.2012-present: PhD student William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and the
London Medical School, Queen Mary University of London;
Start date: January 9th, 2012.
Expected date for submitting the thesis: January 9th, 2016
Primary Supervisor: Prof Márta Korbonits, MD, PhD
Secondary Supervisor: Prof Ralf Stanewsky, PhD
Previous activities
 01.04.2011 – 31.12.2011: Research Fellow William Harvey Research Institute,
QMUL, London, UK.
 01.01.2011 – 31.04.2011: Research Fellow University of Medicine Carol Davila,
Bucharest, Romania
 01.01.2006 – 31.12.2010 Training in Endocrinology and Diabetes at “C.I. Parhon”
National Institute of Endocrinology, Bucharest, Romania
Supervisor: Dr Madalina Musat, MD, PhD
 01.01.2005 – 01.01.2006 Internship in intensive care at Emergency Clinical Hospital
of Mures County, Targu Mures, Romania
Supervisor: Prof Dr Sanda Copotoiu, MD, PhD Chief of Intensive Care Department
Clinical qualification: Specialist in Endocrinology and Diabetes
 Degree awarded by the Romanian National Minister for Health, 2010.
 Certified by the Romanian Council of Endocrinology.
Clinical rotations and activities:
- 01. 01.2009 – 31.12.2010 SpR Endocrinology “C.I. Parhon” National
Institute of Endocrinology
Pathology: Acromegaly, Bone diseases, Cushing’s disease, Diabetes and lipid
metabolism, General Endocrinology, Neuroendocrine tumours, Non-
functioning pituitary adenomas, Obesity, Prolactinomas, Thyroid pathology.

2. Curriculum Vitae. Elena Daniela AFLOREI, MD, MSc
Endocrinology Ward: clinical care and follow up of inpatients, dynamic
hormonal tests, perioperative management of endocrine patients, endocrine
emergencies, assessment of patients from other specialties, post-I131
surveillance.
- 01.01.2008 – 31.12.2008 SpR Endocrinology “N.C. Paulescu” National
Institute of Diabetes and Endocrine Diseases: Diabetes and diabetic acute and
chronic complications
- 01.01.2006 –31.12.2007 SpR Endocrinology Rotation on Internal medicine,
Obstetrics and gynaecology, Cardiology Neurology, Nephrology, Psychiatry and
Acute medicine.
Education
 Master in Genetics, Microbiology and Biotechnology – University of Bucharest /
Faculty of Biology Bucharest, 2007-2009
Dissertation title: Study case-control for testing the association between SNP rs7566605 of
INSIG2 gene and obesity of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
Supervisor: Dan Cimponeriu, PhD, Senior Lecturer in Genetics, Scientific Researcher III
 General Medicine – University of Medicine and Pharmacy Targu Mures, 1998-2004;
Dissertation title: Microbial pharyngeal contamination of medicine students;
Supervisor: Associate Prof Toma Felicia, MD
Teaching and students’ supervision experience
 2015: Speaker, Neuroendocrinology Option Module
One session per year
Centre for Endocrinology, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and the London School
of Medicine, Queen Mary University of London.
Activities:
- Preparing and delivering talks on designing and keeping reference databases.
- Elaborating questions and helping to review exams.
 2014-2015: Postgraduate Demonstrator.
Four – five session/ month
Activities:
- Regularly supervise for practicals for undergraduate students.
- Training undergraduate students on Molecular Biology techniques.
- Marking the students’ practical answers
 2012-2015: Undergraduates and MRes Students’ supervision
Centre for Endocrinology, William Harvey Research Institute, QMUL.
Activities:
- Training undergraduate students on Molecular Biology techniques.
- Supervising the students on writing their thesis
 2012-2014: OSCEs examiner
Four – five session/ year
Activities:
- Evaluating medical students during Objective Structured Clinical Examinations.

3. Curriculum Vitae. Elena Daniela AFLOREI, MD, MSc
 2010: Lecturer - Carol Davila University of Medicine, Bucharest-Romania
“Genomics, Proteomics, and the Changing of Medical research” Research Methodology
module for 4th year medical students
Awards and grants
 2015 Early Career Grant Society for Endocrinology, UK (£10,000).
 2011-2015: Travel grants for National and International Meetings from the British
Society for Endocrinology, European Society of Endocrinology and QMUL Postgraduate
fund (£5,362).
 2011 William Harvey Research Foundation, UK (funding for PhD £40,000).
 2012 Prize of the Romanian Society of Endocrinology at the 20th Congress of
Endocrinology, Sinaia 27-29 September, Romania for “Danio rerio as a model organism
for FIPA syndrome. Preliminary data”;
 2010 Samuel Leonard Simpson Fellowship in Endocrinology awarded by Royal
College of Physicians, London (£ 8,000)
 2010 Prize of The Romanian Psychoneuroendocrinology Society, at The 5th
National Congress of Neuroendocrinology 27-29 May Poiana Brasov, Romania for:
“Clonality analysis of pituitary adenomas. Experimental protocol and preliminary results”
 2009 Prize of the Romanian Society of Endocrinology at The 17th Congress of
Endocrinology, Sinaia 29-31 October, Romania for “Study case-control for testing the
association between SNP rs7566605 of INSIG2 gene and obesity of Polycystic Ovary
Syndrome
Publications
 Books:
Fica,S., et al., “The Graves' Disease in pregnant woman: can we leave the treatment
decision to the patient?” Medical Editure, Bucharest, 2006, 4.2:162-169.
 Articles:
 Aflorei ED, Korbonits M (2013) Epidemiology and Etiopathogenesis of Pituitary
Tumours, J of Neuro-Oncology
 Garcia EA, Trivellin G, Aflorei ED, Powell M, Grieve J, Alusi G, Pobereskin L, Shariati
B, Cudlip S, Roncaroli F, Mendoza N, Grossman AB, Harper EA, Korbonits M (2013)
Characterization of SNARE Proteins in Human Pituitary Adenomas: Targeted
Secretion Inhibitors as a New Strategy for the Treatment of Acromegaly? J Clin
Endocrinol Metab 98 (12):E1918-1926. doi:10.1210/jc.2013-2602
 Baciu, I., Radian, S., Capatina, C., Botusan, I., Aflorei, E.D., Stancu, C.,
Dumitrascu, A., Ciubotaru, V., and Coculescu, M. (2013). The p.R16H (C.47G>A) AIP
gene variant in a case with invasive non-functioning pituitary macroadenomas and
Screening of a Control Cohort. Acta Endocrinol (Buc) IX, 12.
 Madalina Musat, Bogdan Stanescu, Daniel Grigorie, Rucsandra Danciulescu, D.
Hortopan, V. Nicolicea, Aflorei, E.D., Catalina Poiana: “Cushing Syndrome in
pregnancy – review of the literature and case report”, Gineco.ro, article published in
nr2/vol 5/May 2009

4. Curriculum Vitae. Elena Daniela AFLOREI, MD, MSc
 Conference abstracts, first author:
 Aflorei, E.D. et al. Functional Homology between Human and Fruitfly AIP Protein -
An In Vivo Assay System to Test the Pathogenicity of AIP Mutations. ENDO 2015
(San Diego, CA, USA, 2015); P SAT-440.
 Aflorei, E.D. et al. Overexpression Of Human Aip Gene Can Rescue The Lethality Of
The Knockout Fruitfly Model; XXII Romanian Congress of Endocrinology (Targu
Mures, Romania, 2014) - Oral Communication.
 Aflorei, E.D. et al. Human AIP gene rescue lethality in a Drosophila melanogaster
knockout model of AIP orthologue. 16th European Congress of Endocrinology 2014
Vol. Endocrine Abstracts 55 (Wrocław, Poland, 2014) - Oral Communication.
 Aflorei, E.D. et al. The role of AIP in the integrin pathway in Gondon Research
Conference - Fibronectin, Integrins & Related Molecules (Ventura, CA, USA, 2013).
 Aflorei, E.D. et al. Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism to study aryl
hydrocarbon receptor interacting protein (AIP) gene function. 16th European
Congress of Endocrinology, Copenhagen, Denmark 27 April-1 May (2013).
 Aflorei, E.D. et al. Danio rerio as a model organism for FIPA syndrome. Preliminary
data. The Romanian Society of Endocrinology National Symposium with
international participation (2012).
 Aflorei, E.D. et al. Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor-Interacting Protein- (AIP-) Homologue
in the Fruitfly. 15th Congress of the European NeuroEndocrine Association Vol.
Austrian Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 56 (Vienna, Austria,
2012).
 Aflorei, E.D. et al. AIP (aryl hydrocarbon receptor-interacting protein)-homologue in
the fruitfly in William Harvey Research Institute Day (London, UK, 2012).
 Aflorei, E.D. et al. Development of novel AIP (Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Interacting
Protein) gene study models using the fruitfly and the zebrafish. 15th International
and 14th European Congress of Endocrinology (Florence, Italy, 2012).
 Aflorei, E.D. et al. rs7566605 SNP of INSIG2 gene is not associated with the
polycystic ovary syndrome diagnosis and its phenotypic traits in Romanian subjects.
13th European Congress of Endocrinology, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 30 April - 4
May, P105 (2011).
 Aflorei, E.D. et al. Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Revealing Graves ‘disease - Case
Report. The 5th National Congress of Neuroendocrinology with International
Participation, Poiana Brasov, Romania 27-29 May, P34 (2010).
 Aflorei, E.D. et al. Study case-control for testing the association between SNP
rs7566605 of INSIG2 gene and obesity of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. The 17th
Congress of Endocrinology of Romanian Society of Endocrinology, Sinaia, Romania
29-31 October (2010). - Oral Communication.
 Conference abstracts, co-author:
 Baciu, I. et al. Screening of AIP mutations in young Romanian patients with
sporadic pituitary adenomas. 15th International Congress of Endocrinology,
Florence, Italy 5-9 May (2012).
 Baciu, I. et al. The R16H AIP gene mutation in a non-functioning pituitary adenoma
patient with mental retardation. 19th Romanian Congress of Endocrinology,
Bucharest, Romania 6-8 October, P2 (2011).
 Radian, S. et al. Case–control study of 5-alpha reductase type 2 Val89Leu
polymorphism in Romanian PCOS patients. Society for Endocrinology BES 2011 11-
14 April, P282 (2011).
 Radian, S. et al. Prevalence of RET mutations in medullary thyroid carcinoma
patients. The experience of tertiary Romanian Endocrinology Centre. The 19th

5. Curriculum Vitae. Elena Daniela AFLOREI, MD, MSc
National Congress of Endocrinology of Romanian Society of Endocrinology,
Bucharest, Romania 6-8 October, OC2 (2011).
 Musat, M. et al. Genetic Screening for AIP in Pituitary Tumours in Romania-
Preliminary Report. The 19th National Congress of Endocrinology of Romanian
Society of Endocrinology, Bucharest, Romania 6-8 October, Symposia 1 (2011).
 Baciu, I. et al. Clonality analysis of pituitary adenomas - a pilot study. 13th
European Congress of Endocrinology Rotterdam, the Netherlands 30 April - 4 May,
P266 (2011).
 Baciu, I. et al. Clonality analysis of pituitary adenomas. Experimental protocol and
preliminary results. The 5th National Congress of Neuroendocrinology with
International Participation, Poiana Brasov, Romania 27-29 May, P28 (2010).
 Musat, M. et al. Occult Hypothyroidism in Two Cases of Lingual Thyroid. The 5th
National Congress of Neuroendocrinology with International Participation Poiana
Brasov, Romania 27-29 May, P45 (2010).
 Coculescu, M. et al. Association study of cag repeat polymorphism of the androgen
receptor with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in Romanian population. 19th
Annual Meeting and Clinical Congress of AACE Boston, Massachusetts 21-25 April,
P911 (2010).
 Baculescu, N. et al. Shorter CAG alleles of androgen receptor are selectively
associated with hyperandrogenic phenotypes of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in
the Romanian population. The 5th National Congress of Neuroendocrinology with
International Participation, Poiana Brasov, Romania 27-29 May, OC5 (2010).
 Musat, M. et al. A Tale To Tell: How Lupus Led To Graves' Disease. 12th European
Congress of Endocrinology Prague, 24-28 April, P247 (2010).
 Radian, S. et al. CAG repeat alleles of the androgen receptor are associated with
polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in the Romanian population. 12th European
Congress of Endocrinology, Prague 24 - 28 April, P498 (2010).
 Radian, S. et al. The val89leu polymorphism of type 2 5-alpha reductase gene is not
associated with PCOS in the Romanian population. The 18th National Congress of
Endocrinology of Romanian Society of Endocrinology, Iasi, Romania 7-9 October,
OC9 (2010).
 Radian, S. et al. Impact of Calpaina 10 gene on insulin resistance in polycystic ovary
syndrome in the Romanian population. The 4th National Congress of
Neuroendocrinology with International Participation, Bucharest, Romania 26-28
May, OC10 (2009).
 Musat, M. et al. Cushing Syndrome in pregnancy - case report. The 17th Congress
of Endocrinology of Romanian Society of Endocrinology, Sinaia, Romania 29-31
October, P (2009).
 Baculescu, N. et al. Association study of cag repeat polymorphism of the androgen
receptor with polycystic ovary syndrome. The 4th National Congress of
Neuroendocrinology with International Participation, Bucharest, Romania 26-28
May, OC12 (2009).
Research collaborations
 Nick Brown PhD, Reader in Cell Biology, The Gurdon Institute, Department of
Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, UK
Reference: Dr Nick Brown, n.brown@gurdon.cam.ac.uk
 Nic Tapon, PhD, London Research Institute, Lincoln’s Inn Fields Laboratories,
London, UK
Reference: Dr Nic Tapon, Nic.Tapon@cancer.org.uk

6. Curriculum Vitae. Elena Daniela AFLOREI, MD, MSc
 Paulo Baptista Ribeiro, PhD, Centre for Tumour Biology, Barts Cancer Institute,
London, UK
Reference: Dr Paulo Ribeiro, p.baptista-ribeiro@qmul.ac.uk
 Serban Radian, MD, PhD, Molecular Biology Laboratory of Endocrinology
Department, Medicine University Carol Davila, Endocrinology Institute CI Parhon,
Bucharest, Romania.
Reference: Dr Serban Radian, MD, PhD serban.radian@inserm.fr
Biomolecular Techniques
 DNA, RNA extraction, RNA extraction from fly heads and brains
 MS-PCR, RT-PCR, HRM-PCR, qPCR
 Agarose / polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, image acquisition and analysis
 Automatically DNA Sequencing and microsatellite marker analysis on Beckman
CEQ8000 genetic analyser
 Cell culture, transfection,
 Generation of DNA expression plasmids: cloning from RNA, subcloning using
restriction enzymes, creation of restriction enzyme sites by PCR, site-directed
mutagenesis, plasmid production (bacterial transformation, minipreps, maxipreps).
 In situ hybridization
 Protein extraction, quantification, Western blotting
 Generation of mutants using CRISPR/CAS9 system
 Drosophila genetics and epistasis experiments, cell type specific RNAi and over
expression methodology using the Gal4-UAS system, and application of classical
mutants by imprecise excision of P elements
 Generation of fruit flies FRT mutant clones in heterozygous flies
 Mounting of pupal and adult Drosophila melanogaster wings on microscopic slides
 Analysis of RNAseq data using the Ingenuity Pathways platform, online DAVID
software, STRING software.
 Fluorescent and confocal microscopy: immunofluorescence for localisation of
proteins.
 Software and Platforms: Vector NTI, Primer3, FlyBase, NCBI, UCSC Genome
Bioinformatics, Ensembl, Cluslaw, IGV Software
IT Skills
 MS-Office Processors-Word, Excel, Power Point, Internet Applications
 DNA/RNA/protein data base, primer design,
 Panoramic Viewer
 Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator CS6, Image J
 JMP-in v.5.2 (SAS Institute) - basic
 Reference Manager 12, EndNote X7

7. Curriculum Vitae. Elena Daniela AFLOREI, MD, MSc
Professional Membership
 Member of The General Medical Council - Registration no: 7120692 (Full Licence
to practice)
 Member of Society for Endocrinology
 Member of The European Society of Endocrinology
 Member of The Romanian Society of Endocrinology
 Member of The Romanian Society of Clinical Endocrinologist
Courses and Certificates
 Good Clinical Practice – Barts and The London School of Medicine (22 June 2010)
 Good Clinical Practice – Barts and The London School of Medicine refresher
course (15th April 2014)
References
 Marta Korbonits MD, PhD Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism,
Department of Endocrinology, William Harvey Research Institute
Barts and the London School of Medicine, Queen Mary University of London
Charterhouse Square, London EC1M 6BQ
Tel +44 20 7882 6238, Fax +44 20 7882 6197, Secretary +44 20 7882 6196
Email: m.korbonits@qmul.ac.uk
 Ralf Stanewsky, Professor for Neurobiology
UCL, University of London
511 Rockefeller Building
21 University Street, London, WC1E 6DE
Tel: +44(0)20-7679-6610
Email: r.stanewsky@ucl.ac.uk
 Serban Radian, MD, PhD, Assistant Lecturer in Endocrinology, Coordinator of the
Molecular Endocrine Genetics Laboratory, Institute of Endocrinology “C.I.Parhon”,
Aviatorilor Blvd, no. 36, District 1, Bucharest, Romania
Tel: 0400213172041 ext 263, Fax: 00400318053955
Email: serban.radian@inserm.fr
Languages
 English - proficient speaker, Living and studying in the UK from March 2011
 Romanian- native speaker
Appendix - Short Synopsis of PhD:
Project title: “Application of a Drosophila melanogaster model to study Familial Isolated Pituitary
Adenomas syndrome pathogenesis in vivo”.
Introduction: A phenotypically distinct subgroup of familial isolated pituitary adenoma (FIPA) families
has a mutation in the aryl hydrocarbon receptor-interacting protein (AIP) gene leading to young-onset

8. Curriculum Vitae. Elena Daniela AFLOREI, MD, MSc
acromegaly in most of the patients.(Vierimaa, Georgitsi et al. 2006). These are typically large, invasive
and do not respond well to somatostatin analogue treatment.(Daly and Beckers 2008, Leontiou,
Gueorguiev et al. 2008) To date, more than 70 different AIP variants were published.(Beckers, Aaltonen
et al. 2013) While pathogenicity is beyond doubt for most of the nonsense and frameshift mutations,
missense variants can pose a challenging problem to determine if it is disease-causing or not. This would
have significant relevance in the management of the proband’s family.
Part 1: The Drosophila AIP orthologue (CG1847) is located on the X chromosome and encodes a protein
of similar size to the human protein (hAIP) containing the characteristic TPR domains. We have
generated CG1847 deficient flies via two methods: a) in vivo RNAi knockdown using two non-overlapping
RNAi lines; and b) imprecise excision of a transposable P-element located in the 5'-UTR of CG18479,
which generated a putative null allele of CG1847 via the deletion of its first 2 exons. Our data show that
knockdown and knockout of CG1847 results in lethality. The CG1847exon1_2 mutant is lethal in males and
homozygous females by 72h confirming that CG1847 is an essential gene. Heterozygous females are
viable. To functionally test the homology between hAIP and CG1847, we used the Gal4/UAS system to
perform rescue experiments using a UAS::hAIP construct. We subsequently tested whether wt hAIP, a
truncated humanAIP and four missense mutations identified in FIPA families (p.R16H, p.C238Y, p.A299V,
and p.304Q) could rescue the lethality of CG1847exon1_2 mutants by expressing UAS::hAIP under the
control of a ubiquitous promoter (i.e. actin) during fly development.
Part 2: Our data show that both the knockdown and knockout of CG1847 results in lethality (see above).
To reveal the potential underlying molecular mechanisms of loss of AIP, a whole transcriptome analysis
was performed using Illumina Next Generation Sequencing. We performed RNAseq in 48h old mutant
(CG1847exon1_2) or control male larvae isolated using fluorescent markers. This allowed us to determine
gene expression profiles using an established pipeline (Bowtie, TopHat, Cufflinks and Cummerbund
softwares) and to identify key pathways that are highly significantly altered in the mutant and are
related to embryonic development or survival.
Part 3: Interestingly, when we performed RNAi-mediated depletion of CG1847 using different wing-
specific promoters (nub-Gal4, hh-Gal4), we observed blistering in the wings (over 99% with nub-GAL4).
There are several mechanisms how blisters can develop in fruitfly wings and we have tested some of the
mechanisms by immunostaining. We also used RNAseq data to identify the affected pathways.