Dr. Charalampos Skarlis

Basic and Clinical Sciences (BCS)

SHORT BIO

Charalampos Skarlis, Pharm.D, MSc, PhD

Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, Medical School, UNIC Athens

Charalampos Skarlis is an Assistant Professor of Pharmacology in the Department of Basic and Clinical Sciences, Medical School, UNIC Athens. He is also a Scientific Collaborator of the Demyelinating Diseases Unit and the Immunogenetics Laboratory of the 1st Department of Neurology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), Aiginiteio Hospital.

Dr. Skarlis graduated from the School of Pharmacy of the University of Ferrara (Italy) with the grade “Excellent” (DOATAP equivalence). He holds two Master’s degrees from the NKUA Medical School, both with the grade “Excellent”: in “Molecular and Applied Physiology” and in “Clinical Trials: Design and Execution”. He was awarded his PhD by the NKUA Medical School with the grade “Excellent”, with a thesis on the immunogenetic, clinical, sleep and stress study of children and adolescents with multiple sclerosis (MS) in the Greek population. He trained in the Laboratories of Pharmacology/Toxicology and Biochemistry/Immunology of the Department of Health Sciences, University of Ferrara (Italy).

Over the past decade, his research has focused on the pathophysiology, immunogenetics, pharmacogenomics and immunotherapy of systemic and organ-specific autoimmune diseases, such as Sjögren’s disease (SjD), systemic lupus erythematosus, inflammatory myopathies, and adult-onset (AOMS) and pediatric-onset (POMS) MS. He has studied mechanisms involved in the development of autoimmunity, with emphasis on the IGF-1/IGF-1R axis, type I interferons, the RANKL/OPG system and Lp-PLA2, as well as the role of HLA class II, ApoE and the BAFF axis in the pathophysiology and therapeutic management of AOMS and POMS. In 2024 he received the Kepetzi Award at the 29th Panhellenic Congress of Rheumatology (ERE-EPERE) for his study on the association of the IGF1R rs2229765 polymorphism with innate immunity and type I interferon activation in Sjögren’s disease. He is the author or co-author of more than 50 scientific articles and abstracts in international scientific journals and conferences. He has supervised and trained Medicine and Pharmacy students in laboratory techniques of Molecular Biology, Immunology and related fields, in the context of diploma theses and dissertations.

He has extensive experience in clinical drug trials: since 2021 he has served as Study Coordinator and Sub-Investigator in more than ten Phase II–IV clinical trials and observational studies of novel therapeutic agents for MS (including BTK inhibitors), Sjögren’s disease and systemic sclerosis, at the Demyelinating Diseases Unit of Aiginiteio Hospital, the Molecular and Applied Physiology – Clinical Immunology Unit of NKUA, and the Rheumatology Department of Evgenideio Hospital. Since 2025 he has been a member of the Aiginiteio Hospital MS Unit team participating in the European Reference Network for Rare Immunological Disorders (ERN-RITA).

He has many years of teaching experience at undergraduate and postgraduate level, as an Academic Fellow and Teaching Fellow (Appointed Instructor) at NKUA (Physiology – Immunology) and as a lecturer in the MSc Programmes “Molecular and Applied Physiology”, “Immunology: Basic Principles and Clinical Applications” and “Rheumatology – Musculoskeletal Health”. He is an ordinary member of the Research Ethics Committee of UNIC Athens, a reviewer for reputable international scientific journals (including Frontiers in Immunology, Scientific Reports and Therapeutic Advances in Neurological Disorders), and Guest Editor of special issues in Cells, Journal of Clinical Medicine, Frontiers in Lupus and the International Journal of Immunopathology and Pharmacology.