K. Stamatopoulos Kostas Stamatopoulos is the Director of the Institute of Applied Biosciences at CERTH, the Center for Research and Technology Hellas, Thessaloniki, Greece. He also holds the positions of Visiting Professor in Lymphoid Tumor Biology at Uppsala University, Uppsala Sweden; and, Research Collaborator of the Hematology Department and HCT Unit, G. Papanicolaou Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece. Recently, he was appointed Coordinator of the Greek Precision Medicine Network on Cancer. Dr. Stamatopoulos has published extensively about the immunobiology of lymphoid malignancies. He is Board member of ERIC, the European Research Initiative on CLL; founding member of the IMGT CLL-DB initiative and the IgCLL group, both operating under the auspices of ERIC; Board member of the Splenic Lymphoma Group; member of the Steering Group of the Euroclonality-NGS Consortium. His current research interests include: immunogenetics of human lymphoid malignancies; cell signaling; genetic diagnostics; precision medicine in cancer; and, patient empowerment in care.
Precision Medicine (PM) investigates the molecular disorders that lead to various diseases taking into account the genetic background, overall host physiology, lifestyle and environmental exposures. This approach holds the potential of targeted prevention and therapeutic intervention tailored to the individual patient, thus maximizing efficacy while minimizing unnecessary toxicities and costs.
Realizing that PM is no longer a promise but rather a reality that will transform how we prevent, diagnose, treat and predict the prognosis of disease, the Division for Research and Innovation of the Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs of Greece has established a Precision Medicine Network (PMN) in Greece with a view to integration into the public health system in order to provide modern, high quality and efficient health services to citizens. Initially, the focus of the Greek PMN will be on cancer, however, it was agreed that there will be future network expansion to address other disorders, including neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases.
Leading national research and academic institutions engaged in research and clinical applications of molecular biology, medicine and data science participate in this Network: in the first phase, four units have been created, two in Athens and one each in Heraklion and Thessaloniki. Gradually, the PMN will forge close links with Oncology/Hematology Clinics and diagnostic laboratories with relevant expertise across Greece to provide state-of-the-art early diagnosis and monitoring services to cancer patients based on next generation sequencing technologies.