Nancy Stathopoulou

Nancy Stathopoulou is a Group Leader and British Heart Foundation Intermediate Basic Science Fellow at the Institute of Developmental and Regenerative Medicine (IDRM), at the Department of Paediatrics, University of Oxford. 

Nancy holds a degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the University of Thrace in Greece, MRes in Biomedical Sciences and a PhD in Developmental Biology from the Medical School of the University of Patras in Greece, with research performed in Greece and the UK (NIMR, now Crick Institute). After completing her PhD, Nancy moved to the UCL Cancer Institute to begin her postdoctoral training in the Epigenetic Signalling lab, led by Dr. Steen Ooi, where she gained extensive experience in epigenetics and embryonic stem cells and identified novel regulators of DNA methylation. She then joined the Cardiovascular Morphogenesis group led by Prof. Pete Scambler at the UCL Institute of Child Health (UCL GOS ICH), where she combined developmental biology and epigenetics to study cardiovascular morphogenesis.

Nancy joined the IDRM in 2023 to set up her research group within the cardiology theme, supported by an IDRM Transition Fellowship, and in 2025 she was awarded an Intermediate Basic Science Research Fellowship by the British Heart Foundation. The focus of her research is on the genetics and epigenetics of congenital heart disease. The aim of her group is to explore the basic biological mechanisms that control normal cardiovascular development and understand how genetic and epigenetic factors can lead to congenital heart disease, with the long-term vision to enable the development of new therapeutic approaches.