Graduate Certificate in Translational Biomedicine & Entrepreneurship

This program is ideal for:

• Bachelor’s or advanced degree holders in biological, medical, or health care sciences
• Professionals working in biotech, pharma, medical devices, digital health, regulatory affairs, or R&D
• Individuals with a business, economics, or tech background seeking entry into biomedical innovation
• Aspiring entrepreneurs seeking to found biotech or health‑tech start‑ups

• A blend of biomedical science, innovation, and entrepreneurship
• Courses led by internationally recognized experts with active roles in academia, industry, and regulatory agencies
• A curriculum covering drug and device development, pharmacoeconomics, precision medicine, and venture creation
• Practical preparation for careers in industry, research, regulation, and commercialization
• Direct pathway to the upcoming Master’s in Translational Biomedicine & Entrepreneurship (automatic acceptance upon Certificate completion)

The Certificate is completed over 4 months through weekly late-afternoon sessions.

Total Modules: 4

Required:

• Module I: Advances and Failures in Medical Product Discovery
• Module II: Pharmacoeconomics
• Module III: Precision Medicine
• Module IV: New Venture Creation

Upon completion of the program, graduates will be able to:

• Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of drug, biologic, vaccine, and medical device development
• Translate new biomedical findings into clinical or commercial applications
• Understand principles of clinical trial design, regulatory science, and pharmacoeconomics
• Apply the fundamentals of precision medicine
• Develop strategies for company creation and funding
• Contribute effectively within biomedical organizations or launch new ventures

Graduates of the program will be prepared for positions in:

• Pharmaceutical, biotechnology, vaccine, and diagnostic companies
• Regulatory or governmental agencies
• Clinical research organizations
• Intellectual property, consulting, and venture capital firms
• Biomedical and digital‑health start‑ups

This Certificate significantly enhances both employability and career mobility within the life sciences ecosystem.

Priority Deadline: TBA
Final Deadline: TBA
Program Start: TBA

Admission Requirements

• Online application form
• Personal Statement
• Two letters of recommendation
• Official transcripts (English translation/evaluation if needed)
• Evidence of Proficiency in English

Applications are reviewed by the program’s Steering Committee.

The cost for the full program is €2200.

Dr. Theoharis Theoharides is Chief Advisor and Chair of the Health and Education Advisory Committee at ACG. He is Professor and Vice Chair of Clinical Immunology and Executive Director of the Center of Excellence for Neuroinflammation Research, Nova Southeastern University, FL and Adjunct Professor of Immunology, Tufts School of Medicine where he was Professor and Director of Molecular Immunopharmacology & Drug Discovery, and Clinical Pharmacologist, Massachusetts Drug Formulary Commission (1983-2022).

He received his BA, MS, MPhil, PhD, and MD degrees and the Winternitz Prize in Pathology from Yale University. He also received a Certificate in Global Leadership from Tufts Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a Fellowship at Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He trained in internal medicine at New England Medical Center, which awarded him the Oliver Smith Award, “recognizing excellence, compassion, and service.” He received the Tufts Distinguished Faculty Recognition and Excellence in Teaching awards multiple times.

He served on the Board of the Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Technology (IFET) and the Supreme Health Council of the Ministry of Health in Greece. He showed that the unique tissue immune cells, mast cells, known for causing allergic reactions, communicate with the brain microglia and are critical for neuroinflammation involved in many conditions, such as autism spectrum disorder and long COVID. He has over 500 publications (52,300 citations; h-index 116), placing him in the world’s top 0.05% of most cited authors and the worldwide expert on mast cells by ScholarGPS and Expertscape.

He was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha National Medical Honor Society, the Rare Diseases Hall of Fame and the World Academy of Sciences; he has also received multiple awards for his humanitarian efforts. Dr. Theoharides is the Founder and Scientific Director of Algonot LLC, where he developed novel dietary supplements, as well as President and CEO of BiomedAdvice LLC, addressing complex neuroimmune conditions.

He has received 37 patents and trademarks.

Dr. Alexia V. Polissidis is Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at Deree – The American College of Greece and Director of Research Grants, with a concurrent role as Visiting Researcher at the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens (BRFAA). She is also Co-founder and CEO of Anacalypsis Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing innovative therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Polissidis holds a PhD in Psychopharmacology from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and has completed postdoctoral training at BRFAA, with visiting scholar stints at Columbia University. Her research focuses on neurodegeneration, particularly Parkinson’s disease, investigating α-synuclein pathology, microbiome–gut–brain interactions, and gene–environment interplay, alongside biomarker discovery and disease-modifying strategies. She brings advanced expertise in translational neuroscience methodologies, including viral and transgenic models, behavioral phenotyping, neurochemical analysis, and high-resolution imaging. Dr. Polissidis has an extensive teaching and mentoring record across undergraduate and postgraduate programs and has secured competitive funding as Principal Investigator, including MSCA Doctoral Networks and HFRI grants, complemented by multiple international collaborations and scientific awards.

Alexis Komselis is the director of AHEAD, the Alba Hub for Entrepreneurship and Development, and a Teaching Fellow at Alba Graduate Business School. He also teaches at Deree – The American College of Greece as Adjunct Faculty and the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University as External Faculty. His work focuses on teaching, supporting and researching entrepreneurship and family businesses.

He is experienced in instructional design for both academic and non-academic programs related to his expertise. He works with entrepreneurs and family business stakeholders in the areas of business modelling, family business sustainability and governance.

In 2014, Alexis co-designed VentureGarden, an entrepreneurial idea accelerator that supports aspiring entrepreneurs in Athens, Heraklion, and Patras. In 2019, he designed the Craft your Business program for refugee and migrant entrepreneurship that offers training, business coaching, and professional services, which was delivered until 2025 in partnership with the International Rescue Committee. In 2023, he launched the NextGen Mentoring platform for next-generation family business members who will be assuming leading roles in their businesses, and in 2024, the FamBiz Toolkit, a resource for Entrepreneurial Families.

Alexis co-designed the Alba MSc in Entrepreneurship and taught several courses in the program. He is co-instructor for the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp course at The Alba MBA. At Deree, he teaches the Small and Medium Management course, while he offers relevant workshops for Alba’s Executive Development.

Alexis holds a BSc in Business Administration from Deree – The American College of Greece, an MSc in Entrepreneurship from the University of Aberdeen and a PgDip in Research Methods from Aberdeen Business School.

George Vasilopoulos is a Pharmacist. He initially obtained his PhD degree at the Department of Pharmacy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), and later at the Department of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), where he spent 3 years as a scientific associate in the Pharmacology Division. He pursued postgraduate studies in Clinical Pharmacy (MSc), in Health Economics/ Pharmacoeconomics and in Business Administration.

He serves as a Professor of Health Management and Entrepreneurship at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens MBA (UoA MBA), and as a Visiting Professor at both the Departments of Pharmacy and of Business & Organizational Management (BA/DEO) of the same University.

He is also a Coordinating Professor at the Institute of Continuous Education (IDE) of Hellenic National Defense General Staff (HNDGS) and Invited Lecturer to Postgraduate Programs at the Universities of Thessaloniki (AUTH), Patras and Alexandropolis-Departments of Pharmacy & Medicine.

He spent 40 years of his career in the private pharmaceutical sector, 25 of which were in C-suite and Top Management as a former Co-CEO / Managing Director of Pharmaceutical Industries. Also, in the Public Health & Insurance sector, he served as President and Board member of Social Security Organization for Health Care Professionals (TSAY), as a former President of the Panhellenic Union of Pharmacists, a former Greek delegate in EC / IMI2 (SGE) and member of Committees on Pharma Business Ethics and Drug Policy & Commercial / Trademarks Affairs.

He is currently the Vice-President of the National Medicines Verification Organization (HMVO), a member of the pan-European network of all medicines verification registered in the European market. Moreover, he is an appointed Advisor to the Panhellenic Union of Pharmaceutical Industry (PEF), a non-executive Board Member of Pharmaceutical Companies and a Member of the Pharmaceutical Expenditure Monitoring Committee established by the Ministry of Health.

Dr. Christina Mitropoulou, PhD, MBA obtained her economics degree from the University of Athens (Greece), her MBA from NIMBAS in Utrecht (the Netherlands) and her PhD on economic evaluation in Pharmacogenomics and Precision Medicine from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam (the Netherlands). Christina is Managing Director and senior health economist at the Golden Helix Foundation (London, UK) and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the United Arab Emirates University, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Genetics and Genomics. She is also visiting faculty at the University of Ioannina, Department of Economics and has established in 2014 and coordinating the Golden Helix Academy, delivering e-training courses in the field of economics and personalized medicine.

Christina has led the effort, as work package and Component Leader, to perform cost-effectiveness analysis and health technology assessment in two prospective pharmacogenomics clinical studies, the PREPARE study in Europe, involving more than 20 hospitals and 23 community pharmacies in healthcare systems of 7 European countries and the Em-HEART, a prospective pharmacogenomics clinical trial for cardiovascular disease patients in the United Arab Emirates in 4 hospitals in Abu Dhabi. With a strong background in economics, she has been responsible for several projects with academic and governmental organizations pertaining to economic evaluation and health technology assessment in genomic medicine and pharmacogenomics, particularly in developing countries.

Christina has more than 60 publications in international peer-reviewed journals, some of which in leading journals, such as Lancet, Lancet EBioMedicine, Lancet EClinicalMedicine, Nature Mental Health, and she has also co-authored two textbooks on Economic Evaluation in Genomic Medicine, published by Elsevier/Academic Press in 2015 and 2023. She has also delivered several plenary and keynote lectures in international conferences, co-organized 4 international conferences in the Netherlands, Greece, and the UK, while her research has received funding from the European Commission and the United Arab Emirates federal government.

Panagiota Karagianni holds a BSc in Biology from the University of Patras and a PhD in Molecular & Cellular Biology from Baylor College of Medicine, with doctoral research focused on chromatin biology. In her postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, the Biomedical Sciences Research Center “Alexander Fleming,” and the University of Athens Medical School, she conducted research on epigenetics and the regulation of gene expression, with publications spanning both basic and disease-related topics. Her subsequent roles have included work in clinical research, medical affairs, and data-enabled drug development, with continued involvement in biomedical research in academic and industry settings, as well as teaching undergraduate and graduate courses.