Kyriaki Bakirtzi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Dr. Kyriaki Bakirtzi is a U.K. and U.S. trained Biologist, Biochemist and Molecular Biologist. Following her M.Sc. she moved to the Foundation for Research & Technology Hellas (FORTH) where she worked for the Department of Electronic Structure and Laser. Dr. Bakirtzi moved to the U.S. with a Full Scholarship to attend a Ph.D. program at the Boston University Medical School in the field of Neuroscience. She graduated in 2009 with the highest impact factor publication record amongst her peers. Dr. Bakirtzi continued at the Department of Gastroenterology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Her research focused on micro-RNAs, intercellular communication via exosomes and subcellular molecular signaling in relation to Colon Cancer, Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. In 2011 and 2017 Dr. Bakirtzi’s research received respectively the 3^rd and 1^st in rank  World Award in the field of Gastroenterology. In 2016, she also served as the Project Leader at the Center for System Biomedicine, UCLA. From 2009 through 2017, Dr. Bakirtzi won two Young Investigator awards and has received funding by the NIH and the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA). She now is the Scientific Director of the Experimental, Educational & Research Center at ELPEN and the Academic Program Coordinator for the Panhellenic Organization of Pharmaceutical Industry. During the years she was active in research (2003-2017) Dr. Bakirtzi produced numerous peer reviewed publications, established collaborations in four Continents and has been invited by institutes such as the Harvard School of Medicine, the Cleveland Clinic and the Mayo Clinic to lecture and train laboratories as an acknowledged expert on two animal model protocols as well as the micro-vesicle isolation methods she has developed.