Overview

Department of Blood Disorder Genetics & Thalassemia (BDGT) / Τμήμα Γενετικής Αιματολογικών Νοσημάτων & Θαλασσαιμίας (ΓΑΝΘ)

MISSION

To identify and resolve current and emerging needs in diagnosis, therapy, research, education and knowledge infrastructure, to reduce global disease burden and to help carrier and patient communities of thalassemias and other rare disorders in Cyprus in particular.

OBJECTIVES

BDGT addresses clinically and diagnostically all non-malignant inherited blood disorders, runs research programs in diagnostics, advanced therapies, genome editing, biomarkers and informatics, and coordinates the CING’s preparatory (IMBS), monogenic disease (MM101) and transferable skills postgraduate courses.

For a full overview of departmental activities across the three CING pillars of SERVICES, RESEARCH and EDUCATION, click the images below.

HISTORY AND KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

Originally founded as the Molecular Genetics Thalassaemia Department and the central molecular diagnostic laboratory for the Cypriot national thalassemia prevention program, the BDGT represents CING at the National Committee for Thalassemia and other Hemoglobinopathies as an integral part of national disease prevention and management strategy. 

BDGT now comprises 12 permanent staff (Head: Carsten W Lederer) and over 25 personnel and students in total. As standout achievements, it has been a pioneer in advanced therapy research, prenatal diagnosis and non-invasive prenatal diagnosis in Cyprus, and was the first in Cyprus to implement genome editing and diagnosis by application of long-read massively parallel sequencing. BDGT offers the island’s only service for preimplantation genetic diagnosis of monogenic disorders (PGT-M), including non-hematological disorders, has developed the world’s leading database and web portal for hemoglobinopathies (www.ithanet.eu), and coordinates international networks for globin variant curation and identification of genetic modifiers.

VISION

To be the most respected, reliable and resourceful partner for non-malignant blood disorders and advanced genetic methodology in Cyprus.