George Kollias

George Kollias (Greece) is Member of the Academy of Athens, Professor of Physiology (Medical School, University of Athens) and Research Professor at the Biomedical Sciences Research Center "Alexander Fleming". He was elected and served as President and Director of the Biomedical Sciences Research Center “Alexander Fleming” (2002-2010 & 2016-2020), and Professor Director of the Department of Physiology, Medical School University of Athens (2020-2023). Since 2016, he has founded and directs the International Graduate Program in "Molecular Biomedicine" at the Medical School of the University of Athens and the BSRC Fleming.

GK has pioneered genetic approaches to study the function of cytokine signaling in animal models of human diseases and contributed knowledge on molecular and cellular mechanisms driving chronic inflammation, autoimmunity and cancer. His lab provided proof of principle preclinical studies that led to the development of anti-TNF therapies for Rheumatoid arthritis and more recently he introduced the pathogenic role of fibroblasts in complex chronic diseases. His work has received 48K citations and an h-index of 98 (Source: Google Scholar). His laboratory is supported by several competitive grants from national sources and the European Commission, and has been awarded twice (2014, 2022) advanced grants from the European Research Council (ERC).

GK is Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) since 2000. He served as a panel member and Chair of the ERC Starting grants (2010-2013) and ERC Advanced Grants (2020). He was awarded the Carol-Nachman Award for Rheumatology (2014). He coordinates the National Research Infrastructures Infrafrontier.GR/Phenotypos from BSRC Fleming, and the precision Medicine pMedGR infrastructure from the Medical School of Athens. He is the founder and president of Biomedcode Hellas SA, a CRO-biotech which offers preclinical drug evaluation services on innovative models of human disease.