Scientific Personnel

Brief Bio

Despina Sanoudou is Full Professor in Pharmacogenomics and Cardiovascular Biology at the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Head of the Clinical Genomics and Pharmacogenomics Unit at the 4th Department of Internal Medicine, collaborating Faculty at the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, and Associate in Interdisciplinary Initiatives at the Center for Hellenic Studies - Harvard University. She completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge, UK, and worked at the Harvard Medical School where she became Instructor in 2003. She is Board Certified in Laboratory Genetics by the American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics and has worked at genetic diagnostic laboratories of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital and Children’s Hospital Boston. She has served as Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Imperial College London Faculty of Medicine, Visiting Scholar at the Boston University Department of Medicine, and Co-ordinator of the International Genomics and Pharmacogenomics Program of the Sir Magdi Yacoub Research Network.
Her research work focuses on deciphering pathogenetic mechanisms in cardiovascular disease and the development of precision medicine therapeutic approaches. She has >160 publications in scientific journals and books (Google Scholar: H-Index=48, citations=7,574), and >500 oral and written presentations at international meetings.

She is a member of the International Science and Advisory Board of the Netherlands Heart Institute, has served as Expert Advisor to the Dutch Royal Academy of Sciences, as Vice President of the Greek National Committee for the Reimbursement Regulations of Health Technology Products and Services (EOPPY), and member of the Medicines Approval Committee of the Greek National Medicines Organization (EOF). She serves on the evaluation committees of >20 international and national funding organizations, in the editorial boards and reviewer teams of >50 international scientific journals.

She has given lectures to >12,000 undergraduate/postgraduate students across >95 countries. She has organized multiple training programs, including the Precision Medicine module at the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens  (2018) which has been attended by >1,500 Medical students to date. She has served as Director of the Early Career Investigator Program of the international Leducq Foundation Cure-PLaN program, as well as Member of the Nature Publisher - Masterclasses Expert Panel. She has also founded the BRFAA Science High School Outreach Program in Greece (2004), which has hosted >7,000 high school students to date.  Since 2020 she established and directs two highly successful continuing education, distance learning courses at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, on Laboratory Genetics and Genetic Counselling.

Professor Sanoudou has received multiple awards for her contribution to science and education including the L’Oreal-UNESCO award for Women in Science, an American Society of Human Genetics education award, a Panhellenic Association of Bioscientists award, multiple Hellenic Cardiological Society and Greek Society of Pharmacology scientific awards and more.

Selected Publications

The Cardioprotective PKA-Mediated Hsp20 Phosphorylation Modulates Protein Associations Regulating Cytoskeletal Dynamics.
Vafiadaki E, Arvanitis DA, Eliopoulos AG, Kranias EG, Sanoudou D. Int J Mol Sci. 2020 Dec 16;21(24):9572. doi: 10.3390/ijms21249572.

Advances in biological therapies for dyslipidemias and atherosclerosis.
Valanti EK, Dalakoura-Karagkouni K, Siasos G, Kardassis D, Eliopoulos AG, Sanoudou D. Metabolism. 2020 Dec 5;116:154461. doi: 10.1016/j.metabol.2020.154461. Online ahead of print.

The "Virtual Digital Twins" Concept in Precision Nutrition.
Gkouskou K, Vlastos I, Karkalousos P, Chaniotis D, Sanoudou D, Eliopoulos AG. Adv Nutr. 2020 Nov 16;11(6):1405-1413. doi: 10.1093/advances/nmaa089.

Leducq Transatlantic Network of Excellence to Cure Phospholamban-Induced Cardiomyopathy (CURE-PLaN).
Doevendans PA, Glijnis PC, Kranias EG. Circ Res. 2019 Sep 13;125(7):720-724. doi: 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.119.315077.

The Crocus sativus Compounds trans-Crocin 4 and trans-Crocetin Modulate the Amyloidogenic Pathway and Tau Misprocessing in Alzheimer Disease Neuronal Cell Culture Models.
Chalatsa I, Arvanitis DA, Koulakiotis NS, Giagini A, Skaltsounis AL, Papadopoulou-Daifoti Z, Tsarbopoulos A, Sanoudou D. Front Neurosci. 2019 Mar 26;13:249. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2019.00249.

Muscle Lim Protein and myosin binding protein C form a complex regulating muscle differentiation.
Arvanitis DA, Vafiadaki E, Papalouka V, Sanoudou D. Biochim Biophys Acta Mol Cell Res. 2017 Dec;1864(12):2308-2321. doi: 10.1016/j.bbamcr.2017.08.010.

Calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) inhibition ameliorates arrhythmias elicited by junctin ablation under stress conditions.
Tzimas C, Terrovitis J, Lehnart SE, Kranias EG, Sanoudou D. Heart Rhythm. 2015 Jul;12(7):1599-610. doi: 10.1016/j.hrthm.2015.03.043.

Correction of human phospholamban R14del mutation associated with cardiomyopathy using targeted nucleases and combination therapy.
Karakikes I, Stillitano F, Nonnenmacher M, Tzimas C, Sanoudou D, Termglinchan V, Kong CW, Rushing S, Hansen J, Ceholski D, Kolokathis F, Kremastinos D, Katoulis A, Ren L, Cohen N, Gho JMIH, Tsiapras D, Vink A, Wu JC, Asselbergs FW, Li RA, Hulot JS, Kranias EG, Hajjar RJ. Nat Commun. 2015 Apr 29;6:6955. doi: 10.1038/ncomms7955.

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