Our team

Prof. Paolo Ghia

Board Member

Paolo Ghia received his MD from the University of Torino, followed by a residency in Internal Medicine. He received his PhD working at the Basel Institute for Immunology, Basel, Switzerland, studying the development of normal human B lymphocytes. He moved to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, where he studied the molecular mechanisms of the pathogenesis of chronic lymphoproliferative disorders, particularly of follicular lymphoma. He is now Full Professor in Medical Oncology at the Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, and Deputy Chairman of the Division of Experimental Oncology, at IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele, Milano where he is also Head of the Laboratory of B-Cell Neoplasia and Director of the Strategic research program on CLL.
His research interest is the study of the molecular and cellular mechanisms acting in the natural history of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL), including Monoclonal B-cell Lymphocytosis (MBL) with the overall aim of translating the knowledge into the definition of more reliable prognostic markers and more targeted therapies. On these topics he has published over 260 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals. He is President of the European Research Initiative on CLL (ERIC), collaborating to the guidelines for the detection of Minimal Residual Disease (MRD), for the analysis of the mutational status of the immunoglobulin (IGHV) genes and of the TP53 gene aberrations.
He is also a member of the WHO Clinical Advisory Committee for Lymphocytic and Histiocytic Malignancies for the topic Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, MBL, and PLL and associate Editor for CLL at Haematologica, the official Journal of the European Hematology Association (EHA).

Prof. Kostas Stamatopoulos

Board Member

Kostas Stamatopoulos, MD, PhD, is a specialist in Hematology, 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 at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden; and, Research Collaborator of the Hematology Department and HCT Unit, G. Papanicolaou Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Dr Stamatopoulos is the coordinator of the Hellenic Precision Medicine Network in Oncology; Board member of ERIC, the European Research Initiative on chronic lymphocytic leukemia, where he is responsible for patient empowerment; Steering Committee member of the Scientific Working Group on Precision Hematology of the European Hematology Association; 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.
Dr Stamatopoulos is a member of the Hellenic Society of Haematology, the European Haematology Association, the American Society of Hematology, amongst others, and has served in different committees of these organizations.
His research interests include: precision medicine in cancer; immunobiology of lymphoid malignancies; and, patient empowerment in care.

Prof. Arnon Kater

Support Member

Prof. Dr. Arnon Kater is professor of Translational Hematology at the University of Amsterdam’s faculty of Medicine (AMC-UvA). His fundamental, translational and clinical research as a Clinical Hematologist is focused on lymphatic cancer (lymphoma), in particular chronic lymphatic leukemia (CLL). He is one of the founders of the Lymphoma and Myeloma Center Amsterdam (LYMMCARE), a specialist knowledge center where the AMC-UvA’s Clinical Hematology, Experimental Immunology, and Pathology departments have joined forces since 2012. Within the Amsterdam University Medical Center, he is deputy head of the Department of Hematology, Dean of the Hematology Specialty Program, and chairman of the Good Clinical Research Committee. In addition, he chairs the Dutch CLL working group at the Hemato-Oncology Foundation for Adults in the Netherlands (HOVON) and is a member of the editorial board of the journals Blood and Haematologica. In collaborations with various pharma companies, Prof. Kater is involved in developments leading to new treatment modalities.
Prof. Kater was trained as an internist (hematologist) at the AMC-UvA. In 2006, he obtained his PhD in research into cell death regulation in CLL cells. Prof. Kater has been a staff member of the Internal Medicine Department at the AMC-UvA since 2007, and principal researcher in Clinical Hematology since 2012. From 2008 to 2009 he also worked as a postdoc at the Moores Cancer Center and the Laboratory of Gene Regulation and Signal Transduction at the University of California (San Diego, US). He co-authored over 100 manuscripts that together have been cited more than 4,000 times.

Prof. Yair Herishanu

Support Member

Dr. Yair Herishanu is one of the recognized and highly experienced hematologists of Israel. He is currently at Ichilov Medical Center Israel and has 25 years of experience. Dr. Yair has won various exceptional awards for his achievements and has remained a leading member of many reputable organizations. 33 of his research have been published in well-reputable journals and he is also author of 1 book. His specialty lies in treating Chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Dr. Yair Herishanu completed his bachelors of medicine from Ben-Gurion University. He then completed his residency of internal medicine from Rabi Medical Center and Meir Medical Center. He then completed his specialization of hematology from Tel Aviv Medical Center. Dr. Yair is currently serving at Ichilov Medical Center, Sourasky.

Dr. Thomas Chatzikonstantinou

Support Member

Thomas is based at CERTH, the Center for Research and Technology Hellas, in Thessaloniki, the coordinating hub of the national partner in Greece.
Thomas is a Medical Doctor and holds a master’s degree in clinical pharmacology from the Democritus University of Thrace, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Science, Alexandroupolis, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate working on a clinical study on real-world data.
He has worked as a medical doctor, hematologist, and his most recent position is Clinical Researcher and Supervisor of real-world studies at CERTH.

Dr. Scarfò Lydia

Support Member

Lydia Scarfò, MD, is a Physician Scientist at the B-cell neoplasia Unit and an Assistant Professor at Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano, Italy.
Dr Scarfò received a degree in medicine and surgery from the University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy, in 2006. She specialized in hematology in 2012 and later, in 2017, further specialized in internal medicine. She moved to the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in 2012, where she is currently involved in preclinical and clinical trials.
Dr Scarfò currently oversees more than 20 clinical trials related to chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) as a co-investigator and is the principal investigator of a Phase III trial for follicular lymphoma first-line treatment.

Dr. Pantelis Natsiavas

Head of IT

Dr. Pantelis Natsiavas is an Engineer / Researcher (Grade C) at the Institute of Applied Biosciences of Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (INAB|CERTH), heading the eHealth Lab in Thessaloniki, Greece. He holds a PhD from Sorbonne University (Paris, France) and two MSc degrees and a Diploma of Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh). He has received a scholarship from the French Government and has been a visitor researcher for the LIMICS lab (Paris, France), while he has also worked as a Software Engineer with companies both located in Greece and abroad, providing services regarding software development and consulting for more than 10 years. Since 2013, he has been part of many European and national R&D projects on Medical Informatics, related with telemonitoring, health data security, drug safety and pharmacovigilance, focusing on the use of Knowledge Engineering approaches (e.g. the creation and use of ontological models and knowledge graphs). Currently, he is the Technical Coordinator of MyPal project (Horizon 2020 framework) and the “Hellenic registry of patients with chronic respiratory conditions and home mechanical ventilation support”, maintaining clinical data from 11 disparities across Greece. Finally, he is the Principal Investigator for the project PVClinical and the main contact for the EHDEN network’s National Node for Greece, on behalf of INAB|CERTH.

Christos Timamopoulos

IT Support, Developer

Christos is a Research Associate, Programmer, and Data Analyst at the Institute of Applied Biosciences, Center for Research and Technology Hellas (INAB|CERTH). He holds a bachelor’s degree in Applied Informatics from the University of Macedonia, where he graduated in the top 10% of his class, and a Master’s degree in Data Science from the International Hellenic University. His master’s thesis on anomaly detection in real-world data showcases his ability to tackle complex data challenges.

At INAB|CERTH, Christos works on developing applications for healthcare companies and research projects, with a focus on data analysis and software development to support biomedical research and improve healthcare outcomes.