Maria P. Ikonomopoulou

Dr. Ikonomopoulou is a Senior TALENTO Fellow (Program of research excellence by the Madrid Government), Head of the Translational Venomics Group at IMDEA-Food Institute in Spain and Honorary Associate Professor in the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland in Australia. She is also in the Core Management Committee of CA19144 EUVEN – European Venom Network, as Coordinator of the Stakeholder Engagement Committee, member of STRATAGEM (Solid Cancer network) (EU-COST Action) CA1704 and of Women in STEMM Australia . In brief, she returned to Europe in 2017 with the award of the Marie Curie “AMAROUT” Fellowship to conduct my independent research in Spain. Before that, she had acquired international research experience in biology and biotechnology in Australia, Spain, Greece, Ireland & Malaysia. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Agricultural Technology from the Technological Educational Institute in Western Macedonia in Greece and part of my degree was conducted in the Biotechnology Department at the Teagasc-Moorepark Research Centre in Ireland (Leonardo Da Vinci EU Program).I have a MSc in Zoology from the University of Tasmania (2003) and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Queensland (2009) (UQ & APAI Fellowships) in Australia. Dr. Ikonomopoulou has held postdoctoral positions at the University of Queensland and QIMR Berghofer. Her research is focused on the biodiscovery, pharmacological characterisation, and optimisation of animal venom compounds as tools or agent candidates (anticancer: melanoma or anti-aging: senolytics).