My interest in working as a researcher rose during my B.Sc. studies in Biochemistry and Biotechnology (University of Thessaly, Greece) while I was working on my bachelor thesis at the School of Medicine in Larissa (Greece, 2009). Nevertheless, my decision to work in the field of immunology was taken during my M.Sc. studies in Infection Biology (University of Lübeck, Germany, 2015), when I came across several aspects of immunology which I find fascinating. I chose to specifically sharpen my skills in molecular medicine techniques, which when combined with scientific knowledge of human’s body physiology, pathology and molecular biology, allow one to gain insight into molecular or/and genetic underlying mechanisms that affect one’s health. Therefore, I chose to do my master thesis at the Institute of Molecular Medicine of the University of Lübeck working on an interesting project which was related to the autoimmune disease Epidermolysis bullosa acquisita (EBA). This study for the first time showed that there is a functional correlation between the miRNA-379 and the particular target IL22RA2 in the context of EBA, as previously suggested by in silico studies by the research group of Professor Ibrahim of the LIED Institute.

Having this scientific background, I am strongly motivated to further investigate in the direction of autoimmunity, not only in the context of EBA, but also of other autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases. Since the impact of environmental factors on inflammatory phenotypes has been already proposed, I want to unravel and determine the exact mechanisms of gene-environment interactions.