Jan Traeger-synodinos BSc, DPhil

Jan is an Associate Professor of Genetics in the Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Athens University, and has over 30 years of experience in molecular genetics. Originally from the UK, where she graduated with a BSc in Physiology and Biochemistry from Reading University and a Doctorate (DPhil) at Oxford University, (under Sir Professor David Weatherall),

she moved to Greece in 1982 and since 1983 has worked in the university clinics (pediatrics and genetics) of the St. Sophia’s Children’s Hospital in Athens. In 2005 she became a member of Athens University Medical School, in the Laboratory of Medical Genetics. Jan has wide experience with molecular diagnostics for many monogenic diseases. She is an internationally recognized expert in the hemoglobinopathies and also preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), and has contributed to publications on Best Practice Guidelines for both topics. Her main research activities focus on investigating the molecular genetics of monogenic diseases and also the development of methods for molecular diagnostics. She has also participated in an EU-funded project which focused on Introducing diagnostic applications of next-generation sequencing in human genetics. She has almost 140 peer-reviewed publications in international journals and chapters in several books.

Jan is a long-term member of the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) and the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE), serving on the Steering Committee of the ESHRE PGD Consortium between 2004-2016, and as Chair between 2012-2014. She is also a member of the Special Advisory Group for External Quality Assessment for PGD through UK NEQAS and has European registered Clinical Laboratory Geneticist.