Antonios Pantazis grew up in Athens, Greece, where his father, an analytical chemist, encouraged his interest in science by showing him chemistry demonstrations on the kitchen table. “He was my first contact with science, bringing home reagents to demonstrate colorful chemical reactions,” Pantazis recalls. His mother, a primary school teacher, encouraged his academic success in her own way. As he puts it, she “worked tirelessly to get me to overcome my strong tendencies to procrastinate.”
During his undergraduate years at Cambridge University, a summer scholarship placed him in the lab of his physiology tutor, Christof Schwiening, studying pH gradients in snail neurons. That project was eye-opening for Pantazis. “I fell completely in love with electrophysiology,” he says.
Pantazis earned his bachelor’s degree in natural sciences and then continued on at Cambridge to complete his PhD in Roger Hardie’s lab, where he characterized new histamine-gated chloride channels from the fruit fly’s visual system. Next, he undertook a postdoc at University College London in the lab of Lucia Sivilotti and David Colquhoun to study partial agonism in glycine-gated chloride channels. This was followed by a second postdoc at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in Riccardo Olcese’s lab, focused on the voltage-sensing mechanism of BK channels. He stayed another six years at UCLA as an assistant researcher, where he resolved for the first time the surprisingly diverse properties of a calcium channel’s voltage-sensing apparatus.
“In Riccardo Olcese’s lab, we combined electrophysiology and fluorescence methods (voltage-clamp fluorometry) to simultaneously record current (channel opening) and conformational changes from different parts of the channel.” He describes the effect that learning these techniques had on him: “It’s like popping the hood of a beautiful sports car, to discover that not only do the wheels spin, but they are set in motion by a multitude of other coordinated moving parts, hidden from sight unless you know how to look.”
Pantazis is candid about his personal shortcomings, which he says were his greatest career challenge. “I was very immature as a postdoc,” he admits. “I was failing at managing time, avoiding distractions, and being productive. I wanted to be successful, but I needed a drastic course correction. I was very lucky to join Riccardo Olcese’s group, because he was an outstanding mentor. Through persistent mentorship, he instilled in me a good work ethic. I owe Riccardo a huge debt of gratitude, and I try my best to emulate his mentorship in my lab.”
In 2018, after 8 years in the United Kingdom and 10 in the United States, Pantazis moved to Sweden for his first independent position—a decision initially motivated by his Swedish fiancée, now wife. The move turned out to suit him well for scientific reasons in addition to those family priorities. “Sweden is a fantastic place to do science: it has a strong research infrastructure, while excellence is supported and rewarded,” he says. “It especially feels amazing to be part of the Linköping University ion channels community,” which he describes as one of the strongest in Europe.
Today, Pantazis is a senior associate professor at Linköping University and a member of the Wallenberg Center for Molecular Medicine. His lab currently pursues three lines of research: unravelling the function and regulation of neuronal calcium channels, studying disease-linked channel variants to better understand channel biosynthesis and function, and investigating how a variant of the cardiac sodium channel mysteriously causes a lethal form of arrhythmia linked to calcium deregulation.
Ask Pantazis what he loves about biophysics, and he reaches for an analogy from his years in Los Angeles. “In LA, one can famously surf in the morning and go skiing in the afternoon,” he says. “Ion-channel biophysics also offers a rich diversity of activities,” like running electrophysiological/immunocytochemical/proteomics experiments, constructing physically relevant mathematical models, or tinkering with the lab instruments. “Doing biophysics ticks all the boxes.”
The part of the job he finds most rewarding has shifted over the course of his career. Early on, it was the thrill and beauty of real-time electrophysiological data and, occasionally, being the first person on Earth to see a new result. “Rarer, but so much more rewarding, was the feeling of seeing new data for the first time, and being the sole custodian of a tiny morsel of new knowledge, just for a little bit, before sharing it,” he says. He adds with a laugh, “Maybe that’s because I am an only child.” Since becoming a group leader, though, “That joy shifted to my trainees’ success,” he explains.
Looking ahead, Pantazis is optimistic about where the field is headed, pointing to the growing availability of new research tools—technological, biochemical, or theoretical. “There’s never been a better time to do curiosity-driven, experimental research,” he says. He’s especially drawn to the boundaries between ion-channel biophysics and neighboring fields like protein engineering, biochemistry, and evolution, which he calls “the most attractive places to seek new knowledge.”
When he’s not in the lab, Pantazis enjoys spending time outdoors with his three-year-old son, going road cycling, and playing computer games. And if science hadn’t worked out? “I would wish to be a mad genius movie director,” he says.
Pantazis has attended every Biophysical Society Annual Meeting since 2008. He explains, “In addition to getting my fill of professional networking and knowledge exchange, at the meeting I get to interact with humans who can perfectly understand the highs and lows of lab life. I can share my joys and pains knowing that they get me on a deeper level than my loved ones, because they’ve been through the same. This experience is priceless.” The Society, he says, has shaped his career directly. “It’s changed my life for the better, many times over. At BPS meetings, I met colleagues who gave me inspiration, critical feedback, and even my next job, or they took a leap and joined my lab.”
For those just starting out, Pantazis offers two pieces of advice. First, learn to do experiments well, and do lots and lots (and lots) of them. “So many breakthroughs start off as unexpected observations,” he notes. Second, apply for fellowships early—not just for the funding, but because “composing an application is an excellent way to understand a project, its goals, and how to accomplish them.”
Photo by Charlotte Perhammar