Dr. Eleni Kyriaki Vetsika

Basic and Clinical Sciences (BCS)

Eleni-Kyriaki Vetsika is an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at UNIC Athens, Medical School, Athens.

Dr. Vetsika holds a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry and Applied Molecular Biology and an MPhil in Biomolecular Sciences from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), UK, and a PhD in Pharmacology from Queen Mary University of London (Bone & Joint Research Unit, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry), UK.

As a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College London, the Medical Schools of the University of Crete and the University of Thessaly and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, she developed expertise in immune virology, translational oncology and small extracellular vesicles. She has a particular interest in immuno-oncology, in understanding the mechanisms of response and resistance to immunotherapy, and in identifying novel biomarkers. In 2018, she was appointed Scientific Head of the Single-Cell Proteomics Unit at pMedGR, the Greek Research Infrastructure for Personalized Medicine, at the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

Her research focuses on translational and precision medicine, in particular the discovery of prognostic and predictive biomarkers for patient stratification, early diagnosis, prognosis, treatment monitoring and therapy response in cancer, autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases. Using single-cell technologies and liquid biopsy approaches, including small extracellular vesicles and peripheral blood, she develops non-invasive diagnostics that enable real-time disease monitoring, improve clinical outcomes and support drug discovery.

In addition to her research, she has extensive teaching experience, designing and delivering lectures on proteomics, immunology and cancer biology for undergraduate and postgraduate courses, integrating cutting-edge research into her teaching. She has supervised PhD and MSc students aiming to inspire the next generation of scientists and clinicians.

She has authored 33 peer-reviewed publications in international journals, including Biochimica et Biophysica Acta-Reviews on Cancer, Cancer Letters, Annals of Oncology, Journal of Thoracic Oncology, British Journal of Cancer and Journal of Investigative Dermatology. She has also presented her work in 160 papers at international and national conferences and in more than 130 oral presentations and invited lectures. Her h-index is 16 according to Scopus and 17 according to Google Scholar (as of 2 October 2026).