Elias Kouvelas

Professor Emeritus, School of Medicine, University of Patras

MD, PhD, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Medical School)

He is a graduate and Doctor of Medicine of the Medical School of the University of Athens.

He received postgraduate training at University College London as a Council of Europe Fellow, and at the University of North Carolina. He has worked as a Research Associate at the Medical Schools of Harvard University and the University of California, San Francisco, and has served as a Visiting Professor at Oxford University, the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and the Harvard Biological Laboratories.

From 1978 to 2005, he was Professor of Physiology and Director of the Laboratory of Physiology at the University of Patras Medical School.

He is a member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives.

He has served as:

• Member of the National Advisory Council for Research (Greece)

• Member of the Scientific Councils of the Hellenic Pasteur Institute, the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH), and the Alexander Fleming Biomedical Sciences Research Center

• President of the Hellenic Society for Neuroscience

• Vice-Rector of the University of Patras

• Dean of the School of Health Sciences, University of Patras

• Director of Graduate Studies of the Postgraduate Program in Basic Medical Sciences

• Vice-President and President of the Board of the Ioannis & Euterpi Topalis Foundation

• Vice-President of the Board of the Greek National Opera

---

Recent Research Interests

His recent scientific activities focus on:

• Epigenetic influences on the structure of the brain in animal models

• Molecular disorders in experimental models of neurodegenerative diseases

• Stem cell transplantation in the brain of experimental models of Parkinson’s disease

• Speech and language disorders in patients with Parkinson’s disease

• The relationship between the brain and consciousness