Vasiliki Pogka

Dr. Vasiliki Pogka is an experienced molecular biologist with a strong background in molecular virology and molecular diagnostics. She received her B.Sc. in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the Demokritus University of Thrace in 2006 and her Ph.D in the field of Molecular Virology from the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in 2012. Since 2013, she had headed as the technical director, the National Poliovirus Reference Laboratory of Greece which is accredited by World Health Organization (WHO) within the Public Health Sector of the Hellenic Pasteur Institute (HPI). She was also a member of the National Reference Laboratories for Influenza and other respiratory viruses, and Measles/Rubella viruses (HPI) which are both recognized by WHO. She has a great experience in viral cell culture techniques, genetic characterization and phylogenetic analysis of respiratory viruses as well as antiviral susceptibility testing. Since 2015, she had been actively involved in the virucidal activity evaluation of numerous chemical disinfectants and antiseptics according to European standards. As a postdoctoral scientist, she is now a member of the Bioinformatics and Applied Genomics Unit of the HPI and her main activities are the design, development and implementation of laboratory sequencing protocols and processes related to the preparation of molecular libraries for Next Generation Sequencing. She has attended more than thirty (30) seminars including national and international training courses and meetings. Her published work includes 30 research papers in international peer-reviewed journals.