Dr. Urania Georgopoulou is a Research Director at the Molecular Virology Laboratory of the Hellenic Pasteur Institute, with a distinguished career in virology and immunoregulation. She holds a Biology degree from the University of Patras (1982), a D.E.A. in Developmental Biology from Pierre et Marie Curie University (1983), and a PhD in Developmental and Cellular Biology from the University of Paris XI, Orsay (1986).
Her extensive research experience spans international and national institutions, beginning with postdoctoral research at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, where she worked on hepatitis B virus (HBV) and non-A, non-B hepatitis (NANB). She later contributed to groundbreaking research on HBV, hepatitis C virus (HCV), HIV, and Kaposi’s sarcoma at leading hospitals and universities, including the “Ippokrateio” General Hospital of Athens, the NKUA Medical School, and the National Cancer Institute in the U.S. Since 1991, she has been a key member of the Hellenic Pasteur Institute, progressing from senior researcher to her current leadership role.
Dr. Urania Georgopoulou specializes in viral pathogenesis, focusing on hepatitis viruses (HBV, HCV, HDV) and SARS-CoV-2, with a keen interest in virus-host interactions, immune regulation, and the molecular mechanisms driving hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Her research explores extracellular vesicles, immunometabolism, and the tumor microenvironment in liver diseases. She has played a pivotal role in developing advanced virological tools, including pseudoviral particles, stable cell lines, and innovative 2D/3D in vitro models for studying viral pathobiology.
Committed to education, she has mentored numerous PhD, MSc, and undergraduate students from Greece and across Europe. Since 2012, she has been an instructor in MSc programs at NKUA, the University of Cyprus, and other institutions, teaching virology, molecular diagnostics, and biomedical applications. Beyond research and teaching, Dr.Urania Georgopoulou actively contributes to the scientific community as an expert evaluator for health and research organizations in Italy, Cyprus, and Hong Kong, and as a peer reviewer for high-impact journals. She has also co-authored a U.S. patent on novel HCV-associated nucleic acids and proteins.
