Team members

Marina graduated from the Department of Biology in the University of Patras in 2008 and she pursued her Master’s degree in Biology in the same Department. During her MSc thesis she examined the involvement of signaling molecules in bacterial phagocytosis (Arbi M et al., Dev. Comp. Immunol., 2011) and she gained experience in Cellular and Molecular Biology techniques. She completed her Master in 2010 and after working as a scientific researcher in the Laboratory of Molecular Oncology in the University Hospital of Patras, she carried out PhD research at the Medical School of the University of Patras, under the supervision of Dr. Lygerou Zoi. Her PhD thesis concerned the role of Geminin family members in multiciliogenesis. She characterized the novel role of the protein GemC1 in multiciliate cell differentiation and published this work in EMBO Reports (Arbi et al., EMBO Rep., 2016). During her PhD studies she gained extensive experience in diverse techniques, including experience in handling, establishing and maintaining transgenic mouse colonies, isolation and maintenance of primary mouse tracheal epithelial cells, cell culture of established primary and cancer cell lines. She became skilled with many Cellular and Molecular Biology techniques and she set up 2nd and 3rd generation lentiviral based systems for the expression of different proteins in cells. She is also a member of the Advanced Light Microscopy Facility of the University of Patras and she acquired skills not only for using different types of microscopes, but also transferring this knowledge to the new members of the facility. Currently, she is working as a postdoctoral research fellow in Dr. Lygerou’s lab and focuses on centriole and cilia biology.

Contact her at: armpimarina@gmail.com

Nibal graduated in 2014 from the Department of Biology of the University of Granada (Spain) with expertise in biochemistry of human pathology. She studied a MSc in Regenerative Biomedicine at the Biomedical Research Centre of Granada (CIBM) by 2015. She also received a second MSc in Biological Analysis and Laboratory Diagnosis at the Department of Pharmacy of the University of Granada by 2016. She is currently working on synthetic lethal interactions with DNA replication licensing aberrations as an ESR in H2020 MSCA ITN-ETN SYNTRAIN Network funded by the European Commission.

Contact her at nibalbadra@gmail.com

Spyridoula graduated from the Department of Biology of the University of Patras in 2017. In 2019, she received her Master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences from the Medical School of the same University. During her MSc thesis she examined the role of Geminin superfamily members in the formation of primary cilium, under the supervision of Dr. Lygerou Zoi. She is currently a PhD student studying the role of Geminin superfamily members during the cell cycle and differentiation.

Contact her at: spyridoulampournaka@gmail.com

Valentini graduated from the Department of Biology of the University of Patras in 2021. She also graduated from the International MSc program in Molecular Biomedicine of the National
and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) in collaboration with the BSRC "Alexander Fleming" in July 2023. During her MSc thesis, she examined the implication of lipid droplet
metabolism in non-alcoholic liver disease, under the supervision of Professor Aristides Eliopoulos. She is currently working at the Molecular Genetics Unit and the General Biology Lab under the supervision of Dr. Zoi Lygerou.

Contact her at: vtzimogianni@gmail.com

Sotiris graduated from the department of Biology of the University of Patras in 2021. Currently Sotiris is a Master Student in the master program “Biomedical Sciences” at the Medical School of the same University. He is conducting his thesis at the Molecular Genetics Unit and the General Biology Lab under the supervision of Dr. Zoi Lygerou. He is working on the development of a workflow for the mutational diagnosis of thalassemic patients and the investigation of biomarkers for the efficiency of PARPi therapy on breast-cancer patients.

Contact her at: smavromatis99@gmail.com

Eirini Veltsou graduated from the Department of Physics of the University of Patras in 2021. Currently, she is a student in the master program ‘Life Science Informatics’, at the Medical School of the same University. Her master thesis is about Sanger Sequencing Analysis in the beta globin and therefore Next Generation Sequencing in a gene panel, under the supervision of Dr. Zoi Lygerou.

Contact her at: eveltsou@upnet.gr

Vasiliki Bakali graduated from the Department of Biology of the University of Patras in 2022. Her undergraduate thesis involved Cellular and Molecular Biology techniques. Currently, she is a master student at the ‘Biomedical Sciences’ program, at the Medical School of the University of Patras, under the supervision of Dr. Zoi Lygerou. Her thesis focuses on the role of Geminin family members in multiciliogenesis.

Contact her at: bessybak@gmail.com

Elena Karydi graduated from the Department of Biology of the University of Patras in 2022. Currently, she is a student of the MSc program “Biomedical Sciences” at the Medical School, where she also conducts her thesis at the group of Dr. Zoi Lygerou. Her focus relies on the identification and characterization of novel compound-based therapies for cancer cell targeting in cells presenting licensing aberrations.

Contact her at: karydielena@gmail.com

Lydia Koufoudaki graduated from the department of Biology of the University of Patras in 2022. Currently, she is studying at the “Biomedical Sciences” MSc program at the University of Patras, under the supervision of Dr Zoi Lygerou. Her master thesis is focusing on the role of McIdas, a member of Geminin superfamily proteins, in multiciliogenesis

Contact her at: lydiakouf@gmail.com

Iro Tsoumani graduated from the Department of Biology of the University of Patras in 2022. Currently, she is a student of the MSc program “Biomedical Sciences” at the Medical School, under the supervision of Dr. Zoi Lygerou. Her work focuses on the characterization of synthetic-lethal interactions between deregulated DNA licensing and impaired fork protection mechanisms.

Contact her at: irotsoum16@gmail.com

Ourania Preza graduated from the Department of Biology of the University of Patras in 2019. In 2022 she received her Master’s degree in ‘Life Science Informatics’, at the Medical School of the same University, specialized in Bioinformatics. During her MSc thesis she developed custom-made tools for automatic analysis of nuclear and sub-nuclear structures, focusing on the analysis of DNA damage repair molecules.

Contact her at: o.preza@upnet.gr

Contact:
Tel: +30 2610997680
Email: baka@upatras.gr