Institution	Department of Basic Medical Science, Laboratory of Biology School of Medicine, University of Athens, Greece
Contacts	[email protected]

Dr Gazouli's work refers mainly to molecular basis of diseases mainly autoimmune diseases and cancer, and to molecular detection of pathogens and the investigation of the pathogenesis of the diseases they cause to humans and animals. These activities have produced 156 publications in peer reviewed journals, 2806 hetero-citations, announcements in scientific congresses that were awarded in 17 cases 1 granted International Patent and 3 European Patent Applications.
The first of the full-scale competitive projects that Dr Gazouli was co-investigator referred to the investigation of the role of mycobacterial infections to the causation of sarcoidosis and Crohn's disease. Upon completion of this project the PI was called as an invited speaker to a conference held in Brussels "European Commission Research Directorate - General, Bruxelles, 2002" with title "Improvement of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of sarcoidosis and Crohn'disease" (2002). The PI and her colleagues continued research on the investigation of the genetic predisposition of humans to the development of sarcoidosis and Crohn's disease of humans. Most significantly this expertise has provided the means to support diagnostic investigation of cases of Crohn's disease in children, in collaboration with the MDs of the Paediatric Hospitals of Athens.
Additionally, Dr Gazouli participates in a European cohort about Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, which focused on the molecular pathways that are implicated in the pathogenesis of those diseases. This work has produced 3 publications in Nature Genetics and one in Journal of Crohn and Colitis journal. Also the PI participated in a Validation of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Information System (IBDIS) that is supported by the European Crohns & Colitis Organazitation.
Recently the PI was involved in the incorporation of nanotechnology to the detection of mycobacterial pathogens as scientific project coordinator. This work has resulted to a set of diagnostic assays that allow direct detection and identification of mycobacterial DNA even directly from clinical samples without the need of PCR amplification or dedicated equipment. This work has produced 3 publications, 5 congress announcements, 2 European Patent Applications, and an invited contribution to the Benthem e-book "New Technologies" (currently under publication) with a chapter titled "Nanoparticles in Medical Microbiological Research and Diagnosis".
Currently, Dr Gazouli works on genetics and epigenetics of IBD and cancer including pancreatic cancer.

Work Group: Translation Research (wg3)