Background

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I was born in Drama, a small city in the northeastern part of Greece. I attended public school in my hometown, and I grew up reading novels, poetry and scratching my mind around math problems. My aspiration was to become a novelist. But then, I thought it might be a more exciting path to first discover the world through sciences and travel, and become a novelist when I grow old and return to my hometown.

 

In my undergraduate studies in Crete, I fell in love with evolutionary biology. I found it fascinating how it can explain historical processes that have taken place over millions of years. To this day, I keep a copy of Gilbert's Developmental Biology textbook. I knew I would follow a career in evolutionary biology when I read the chapter "Developmental Mechanisms of Evolutionary Change" and learned about hox genes and the evolution of body plans. For my master's studies, I went to Heidelberg, a vibrant cultural and scientific center with a strong tradition in evolutionary and developmental biology. I researched diverse model systems, from mice and medaka fish to hydra and a "living fossil" annelid. I learned classical genetic and molecular biology methods to study the role of genes and gene regulation in the development and evolution of novel structures. It was during this time that I developed what would become a core part of my research: a strong interest in establishing links between specific genetic changes and their phenotypic effects.

 

My doctoral and postdoctoral research has focused on exploring patterns and processes of behavioral and physiological adaptations to novel and fluctuating environments across timescales. During my PhD at the Marseille Developmental Biology Institute, I studied how novel behaviors evolve. By combining traditional ethological approaches with CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing and neurogenetic tools, I studied how the agricultural pest Drosophila suzukii evolved a novel egg-laying preference for fresh fruit revealing a multi-step evolutionary scenario (Karageorgi et al., Current Biology, 2017). Seeking to experience different intellectual approaches in evolutionary biology, I moved to the US for my postdoctoral research. At the University of California, Berkeley, I worked on a textbook example in ecology and evolution -- how monarch butterflies evolved resistance to toxins of their host plants. I led a study where we used CRISPR to identify the key mutations conferring resistance to host plant toxins in the monarch butterfly and found that they evolved through a constrained adaptive walk (Karageorgi et al., Nature, 2019). Aiming to expand my skills in population genetics and genomics, I joined Stanford University for a second postdoc, supported by the K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award. There, I explored how insecticide-resistance polymorphisms are maintained in natural D. melanogaster populations. Through a combination of experimental evolution in field cages and comprehensive analyses, we demonstrated that dominance shifts can maintain these polymorphisms - providing empirical evidence for a long-standing theoretical model for maintenance of functional genetic variation in fluctuating environments. (Karageorgi et al., bioRxiv, 2024). Additionally, my research showed that despite significant changes in genetic variation due to insecticide exposure, seasonal processes can remain unaffected (Karageorgi et al., in preparation).

 

My scientific journey has unfolded like chapters in a novel - one that I may write someday.