Yiota Veloudi

University of Cyprus (UCY) is the leading public University in the Republic of Cyprus and the most active research institution in the country, participating in more than EU-funded 350 research projects. Within Horizon-2020, UCY ranks 1st in Cyprus with 136 secured projects and total funding of over €64,4 million (2014-2021). According to the QS Word Ranking, UCY had achieved a rise of 105 places in the QS World University Rankings 2024, ranked 368th worldwide, belonging in the top 25% of Universities worldwide. Importantly, UCY ranks 89th worldwide in the 2024 THE Young University Rankings. biobank.cy is the Center of Excellence in Biobanking and Biomedical Research at UCY, established in 2019 through a H2020-Widening-TEAMING program, with a total budget of €38mi for 15-years. Additional funding of >2m euro has been secured since then for more projects to materialize at the biobank.cy, plus in-kind contribution by Regeneron Pharma worth of >1.5m euro for genetic studies. biobank.cy employs 50 researchers & admin staff, including an Operations Manager with expertise in finance/accounts and human resources management, a Project Manager, a Quality Manager, a Biobank Manager, a Senior IT Manager and a team of Bioinformaticians. Its research activities include medical/molecular genetics, investigations for disease pathomechanisms using cell biology systems and animal models, while a major effort is in identifying and validating genetic modifiers of disease. biobank.cy is hosting the Cyprus human Genome Project, which recently completed the first nearly 1500 Whole Exomes of the Cypriot general population (CYPROME) and working on another 1000 Exomes and another 1500 Genomes (500 trios). A strong bioinformatics team is analysing these BIG data for the first time in Cyprus.