Team

Katerina (Ekaterini) Tiligada is Professor of Experimental Pharmacology at the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) in Athens, Greece. She completed her secondary education at École Franco-Hellénique «Saint Joseph» in Athens, Greece and her undergraduate studies in (Medical) Biochemistry at University College Cardiff in the UK. She pursued her PhD at the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, University of Wales College of Medicine, UK and subsequently joined the NKUA Medical School where she established and still coordinates the Immunopharmacology group. In 2011, she established, and coordinated until 2017, the research laboratory of the Allergy unit at ‘Attikon’ University Hospital, Athens, Greece. During the last 30 years Prof. Tiligada focuses her research on inflammatory and immune-related processes, with particular interest in the functional role of histamine and histamine receptors in human pathophysiology. Her other areas of interest include the cellular stress response and drug hypersensitivity reactions. She has published over 100 peer reviewed papers and 10 book chapters. She has an extensive experience in teaching undergraduate and postgraduate medical and dental students and in training and supervising MSc and PhD candidates and young investigators. She has participated in numerous medical residency and continuing education programs, seminars and European training schools. Prof. Tiligada promotes national and international scientific collaborations in pharmacology. Notably, she conceived the idea and fully managed the EU-FP7-funded COST Action BM0806 that led international basic and translational histamine research and therapeutic exploitation and directed sustainable cooperation between academia and Pharma industry. This success was followed by her election as President of the European Histamine Research Society (EHRS) and Treasurer and then Vice-Chair of the IUPHAR Immunopharmacology Section (ImmuPhar). Furthermore, she serves as IUPHAR/BPS Guide to Pharmacology corresponding member, expert evaluator for national and European evaluation bodies and committees, observer in the Rheumatology-Immunology Working Party (RIWP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and as Editor or Editorial panel member of high impact international journals and books in the field of pharmacology.

Kyriaki (Korina) Gerasimidou is final year undergraduate student at the Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. For the last 5 years she has focused her research on histamine and its role in the pathophysiology of inflammatory and (auto)immune processes, using histamine quantification protocols in human peripheral blood, serum and plasma. In particular, she has measured histamine levels in samples derived from volunteers with drug allergies and volunteers with psoriasis, in order to evaluate the association of circulating histamine levels and the clinical manifestations of the disease. Her other interests involve therapeutic approaches in rheumatic diseases and allergen immunotherapy. She is co-author in 2 book chapters and has presented 2 studies at the annual meeting of the European Histamine Research Society (EHRS), of which she is an active member. In 2019 she received a student bursary from the EHRS in order to present the findings concerning psoriasis in the annual meeting of the Society in Krakow, Poland.

• Zampeli E, Gerasimidou K (2022) Rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, and gout. In Immunopharmacology/Musculoskeletal system, Katerina Tiligada (Section Editor), Comprehensive Pharmacology, Terry Kenakin (Editor-in-Chief), 1st Edition, Elsevier
• Gerasimidou K, Kavallari A, Kakolyri M, Tiligada E (2019) Implication of circulating histamine in psoriasis: basic and clinical perspective. Inflamm Res 68 (S1):S23
• Tiligada E, Gerasimidou K, Levi-Schaffer F (2018) Innovative drugs for allergies. In Riccardi C, Levi-Schaffer F, Tiligada E (Eds). Immunopharmacology and Inflammation. Springer International Publishing AG, Chapter 14, pp. 309-321
• Kakolyri M, Gerasimidou K, Chliva C, Aslanis D, Aggelidis X, Makris M, Tiligada E. (2018) Challenges in histamine translational research: The drug allergy paradigm. Inflamm Res 67 (S1):O18