Gethimani Tarapatzi is a PhD candidate in the Laboratory of Pharmacology of the Department of Medicine of the Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH), Greece. She graduated from the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics of DUTH in 2019, having completed her thesis: "Study of the fibrotic effect on human subepithelial lung myofibroblasts of Th related cytokines." in the Laboratory of Pharmacology of the Department of Medicine of DUTH. In 2021 she completed the Master’s Degree on "Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics" at the Laboratory of Pharmacology of the Department of Medicine of DUTH, with her thesis "The effect of probiotic strains on the fibrotic phenotype of subepithelial intestinal myofibroblasts". In May of 2021 she started her PhD "Study of the interactions between the microbiota and the gut immune system in IBD patients in order to provide new therapeutic strategies".
During June and July of 2018 she had an Internship at the Biochemical Department of the General Hospital of Kavala, while from October 2018 through June 2021 she had an honorary post in the Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology of the Department of Medicine DUTH, Greece, involved in therapeutic drug monitoring using automated chemical analyzers. Since January of 2022 she is working as a researcher at the “Individualised Medicine & Pharmacological Research Solutions Center - IMPReS” (MIS 5047189) which is implemented under the Action “Support for Regional Excellence”, funded by the Operational Program “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation” (NSRF 2014–2020).
Her main research interests consist of the molecular mechanisms involved in the immunological cascades of the gut mucosa, focusing on the pathogenesis of the Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. In addition, she studies the intestinal microflora and its interactions with the mucosa, including the epithelial cells and the subepithelial colonic myofibroblasts, as well as the effects of various probiotic strains in their inflammatory and fibrotic responses. She has co-authored 3 papers published in international scientific journals (impact factor: 12,672, average impact factor: 4,224) as well as 8 abstracts featured in Greek and European Conferences. Extended list of her publications are available at the links bellow https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?sort=date&term=Tarapatzi+G&cauthor_id=34936912 (PubMed) and https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=57226726739 (Scopus).