Research Interests

Her research interests lie mainly in the areas of

• Application of high throughput technologies and statistical tools in the elucidation of genetic diversity for various hereditary diseases and phenotypes;
• Application of genetic annotation and curation NGS data analyses workflows and development of NGS variant exploration tools;
• Population genetics and bioinformatics data analyses;
• Development of F.A.I.R.-compliant databases and registries;
• NGS Diagnostics and Personalized Medicine Networks

Awards and Distinctions

• Erasmus Staff Mobility for Training (STT) grant (2013-2014): Charité University, PD Dr. med. Haüpl and Dr. Stuhlmüller (Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology) and Prof. Radbruch, Dr. Mashreghi and Dr. Grün (Department of Cell Biology and Bioinformatics of the DRFZ);
• Teaching and Research Position (2006 - 2009), Greek Ministry of Education, Lecturer (Presidential Decree 407/80) in Human Genetics (Biology School, University of Crete);
• PhD Fellowship (2000 - 2004): Parkinson’s Disease Society of United Kingdom.

Participation in Recent Research Projects

• Public Cord Blood Bank of Crete (https://www.cordbloodbankcrete.gr) - Public Investment Fund of the Region of Crete (Decision No:135857/18-06-2018);
• Hellenic Network of Precision Medicine in Cardiology and the Prevention of Sudden Juvenile Death (https://icardiacnet.gr): General Secretariat for Research and Technology (February 2019);
• Hellenic Network of Precision Medicine in Oncology (https://oncopmnet.gr): General Secretariat for Research and Technology (May 2018)
• THALES: “UOC-Multidisciplinary network for the study of Alzheimer’s Disease”, National Strategic Reference Framework (MIS 377299, 2015-2018)

Short CV

Dr. Helen (Eleni) Latsoudis is a post-doc collaborating researcher of the Information Systems Laboratory (ICS) at the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH). She received her bachelor’s degree in “Clinical Sciences” (B.Sc.) and carried on with postgraduate studies in “Neurosciences” (M.Sc.) from King’s College University of London, United Kingdom. In 2004 she got the Ph.D. degree in “Genetics of Neurodegenerative Diseases” (Ph.D.) from the Institute of Psychiatry of King’s College University of London, United Kingdom. After her PhD, she joined the laboratory of Molecular Basis of Neurological Disorders at the Medical School, University of Crete (UoC) headed by Prof. Plaitakis, where she stayed as a Lab Manager until 2012. During this time, she conducted a substantial number of molecular genetics and population genetic association and linkage analyses studies in pursue of the variants underlying the aetio-pathogenesis of Neurodegenerative disorders. 
In 2013, she joined the group of Prof. Boumpas at the Laboratory of Internal Medicine (Medical School, UoC) to conduct the transcriptomic analyses using miRNA microarrays. Following an Erasmus Staff and Motility grant she moved to Charité University, where, in collaboration with Prof. Radbruch (Department of Cell Biology and Bioinformatics of the DRFZ, Charité University), she constructed the miRNA functional synergistic networks of Familial Mediterranean Fever using High Performance Chip Data Analysis (HPCDA). Between 2015 and 2019, Dr. Latsoudis joined the group of Dr. Kafetzopoulos at the Minotech Genomics Facility (Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, FORTH) as an NGS analyst and curator. 
During this time, she developed exceptional skills on the development of data analyses workflows regarding the annotation, curation and subsequent management of F.A.I.R. whole exome or targeted NGS sequenced data, based on the regional population genetic characteristics. Her expertise on NGS analyses and clinical genetics resulted in effective collaborations with the medical community of UoC on NGS diagnostic sequencing and the bioinformaticians of ICS-FORTH on the development of variant exploration tools. She subsequently moved to the Information Systems laboratory of ICS-FORTH (headed by Prof. Plexousakis). A substantial role of Dr. Latsoudis in ICS is to aid the bioinformaticians of the group to bridge the gap between the fields of Clinical Genetics and Bioinformatics through the establishment of effective collaborations between the medical community and FORTH.