Democritus University of Thrace

Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH) is among the largest Universities in Greece in terms of the active student population, counting approximately 29000 students (undergraduate, postgraduate, and Ph.D. candidates). DUTH is the only University in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace periphery. It comprises 18 Departments grouped into 8 Faculties. Department of Medicine (Medical School) of DUTH, located in Alexandroupolis, is part of the Faculty of Health Sciences. It was founded in 1977 and started its teaching activities in the academic year 1984-1985. Since 2001, Pharmacogenetics has been a teaching subject of the course “Pharmacogenetics, Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine” in undergraduate medical students Department of Medicine, DUTH. It is the only undergraduate course in Pharmacogenomics in Greece with teaching material emphasizing the mature clinical applications of Pharmacogenomics in different fields of medicine and consecutive, dynamic, and constant participation of medical students (50 students per year, 1/3 of medical students). Pharmacogenetics is also taught as a subject in postgraduate courses in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Medical Genetics, and others (at least one lecture included in each of these courses) under the responsibility of the Laboratory of Pharmacology, Medical School, DUTH. A Pharmacogenetics unit functions within the Laboratory of Pharmacology, offering pharmacogenetics services and relative clinical consultation to the Academic General Hospital of Alexandroupolis. The research activity of DUTH has led to the publication of more than 60 original research articles and reviews in refereed scientific journals associated with Pharmacogenetics (keywords Pharmacogenomics or Pharmacogenetics, source Pubmed). DUTH was a main sponsor of the European Clinical Study “European Pharmacogenetics of Anticoagulant Therapy, EU-PACT.” Professor Manolopoulos, Director of the Laboratory of Pharmacology and main introducer of Pharmacogenetics in Greece, was the National Coordinator for Greece and Management Group Chair for Acenocoumarol in the EU-PACT trial. Results of the EU-PACT trial were published in the New England Journal of Medicine (N Engl J Med. 2013;369(24):2304-12), which is a worldwide scientific journal with the highest impact factor (2017 impact factor: 79,258).