George Kollias

George Kollias is member of the Academy of Athens, Professor of Experimental Physiology at the Medical School of the University of Athens and Director of the Immunology Division at the Biomedical Sciences Research Center "Alexander Fleming", where he served as President and Scientific director from 2002-2010.

Dr. Kollias has pioneered genetic approaches to study the function of cytokine signaling, with specific focus on Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF), in animal models of human diseases. His lab is renowned for proof of principle preclinical studies that led to the development of anti-TNF therapies for rheumatoid arthritis and for advancing knowledge on molecular and cellular mechanisms driving chronic inflammation and autoimmunity (e.g. Rheumatoid Arthritis, Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Multiple Sclerosis). Dr. Kollias' work has received over 22.000 citations and an h-index of 67 (Google Scholar). His laboratory is supported by several competitive grants from the European Commission and National sources, as well as by the pharmaceutical industry.  He was recently granted an Advanced ERC grant to study the role of mesenchymal cells in tissue homeostasis and pathophysiology. Animal models developed in his lab have been distributed to numerous academic and industrial laboratories around the world (over 200 MTAs in the last ten years). In 2005 he founded the first CRO-biotech spin-off of BSRC Fleming, Biomedcode Hellas SA.

Dr. Kollias has lead several efforts for the development of biomedical research infrastructures at a national and European level. He served as the National Representative of Greece for the ESFRI (European Research Forum on Research Infrastructures, 2010-2012) and as member of the ESFRI strategic working group on Health and Food to date. Since 2000, Dr. Kollias is an elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). He also served as Chair of the ERC Starting grants Review panel for Immunity and Infection (2012 and 2013).