EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Postdoctoral scholar. Stanford University, Biology Department. Advisor, Prof. Dmitri Petrov. 2020 – present

Postdoctoral scholar. University of California, Berkeley, Department of Integrative Biology. Advisor, Prof. Noah Whiteman. 2017 – 2020

PhD in Neurosciences (mention très honorable). University of Aix Marseille, Developmental Biology Institute of Marseille (IBDM), France. Advisor, Dr. Benjamin Prud’homme. 2012 – 2016

MSc in Molecular Biosciences. Major in Developmental Biology. University of Heidelberg, Germany. 2009 – 2012

BSc in Biology. Direction of Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology. University of Crete, Greece. 2004 – 2009

 

GRANTS

NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00). Project: Genetics of adaptation to toxic environments, 2021 – 2026

 

FELLOWSHIPS, AND AWARDS

Godfrey Hewitt Mobility Award from European Society of Evolutionary Biology. Project: Genetics of adaptation in cardiac-glycoside resistant populations of Drosophila subobscura, 2019

Scholarship for 4th year of PhD thesis completion from Fondation Pour La Recherche Medicale, 2015 -2016

Marie Curie Initial Training Network Fellowship (ITN). FLiACT ITN “Systems neurosciences of Drosophila: From genes to circuits to Behaviour”, 2012 – 2015

 

MANUSCRIPTS IN PREPARATION

1. Karageorgi M, Bitter MC, To-Duyen Tran C#, Huynh A#, Oken H, Berardi S, Schmidt P, Petrov DA. Adaptive tracking in response to seasonal insecticide pressure in Drosophila.

#Undergraduate mentee co-author

 

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS

1. Paris M, Boyer R, Jaenichen R, Wolf J, , Green J, Cagnon M, Parinello H, Estoup A, Gautier M, Gompel N, Prud’homme B.Near-chromosome level genome assembly of the fruit pest using long-read sequencing.

2. Groen SC*, Sumbul F, Pelaez JN, Verster KI, Aguilar JM, Hastings AP, Bernstein SL, Matsunaga T, Astourian M#, Guerra G, Dobler S, Agrawal AA, Whiteman NK. Genome evolution retraces the evolution of toxin resistance in the monarch butterfly. Nature 2019; 574 (7778): 409-412. *Equal contribution, #Undergraduate mentee co-author

3. Verster KI, Wisecaver JH, Duncan RP, , Gloss AD, Armstrong E, Price DK, Melon AR, Ali ZM, Whiteman NK. Horizontal transfer of bacterial cytolethal distending toxin B genes to insects. 2019; 36 (10): 2105-2110

4. Karageorgi M, Bräcker LB, Lebreton S, Minervino C, Cavey M, Siju KP, Grunwald Kadow IC, Gompel N*, Prud'homme B*. Evolution of Multiple Sensory Systems Drives Novel Egg-Laying Behavior in the Fruit Pest Drosophila suzukii. Current Biology 2017; 27(6): 847-853

 

COMMENTARIES

Karageorgi M*, Matsunaga T*, Whiteman NK. Drosophila: Where the wild flies are. Current Biology 2018; 28(24): R1382-R1384. *equal contribution

 

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Biology Department, Stanford (USA). Post-doctoral scholar. Advisor, Prof Dmitri Petrov: Genetics of adaptation to toxic environments. August 2020 - now

 

Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley (USA). Post-doctoral scholar. Advisor, Prof Noah Whiteman: Genetics of adaptation in cardiac glycoside adapted insects. August 2017- July 2020

 

Developmental Biology Institute of Marseille (IBDM), Marseille (France). PhD student (FliACT, Marie Curie ITN Drosophila Systems Neuroscience). Advisor Dr Benjamin Prud’homme: Evolution of oviposition behavior in the agricultural fruit pest Drosophila suzukii. October 2012 – December 2016

 

Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Munich (Germany). PhD secondment (FliACT, Marie Curie ITN Drosophila Systems Neuroscience). Supervisor Prof Ilona Grunwald Kadow: Study olfactory preferences for fruit ripening stage in Drosophila suzukii and Drosophila melanogaster November 2014 -December 2014

 

Developmental Biology Institute of Marseille (IBDM), Marseille (France). Research internship in the laboratory of Dr Benjamin Prud’homme & Prof Nicolas Gompel. Study role of pigmentation genes and develop transgenesis in the wing-spotted fly Drosophila nebulosa. April – June 2012

 

Center of Organismal Studies (COS), Heidelberg (Germany). Master thesis in the laboratory of Dr Laurence Ettwiller: Characterization of enhancer properties for gene regulation in the medaka fish. March 2011 – February 2012    

 

Center of Organismal Studies (COS), Heidelberg (Germany). Lab rotation in the laboratory of Dr Laurence Ettwiller. Evaluation of filters for a computational method for enhancer prediction. February 2010 - March 2011

 

Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg (Germany). Research assistant in the laboratory of Dr Andreas Schaefer. Histology and immunohistochemistry for olfactory bulb neurons. September 2009 - March 2010

 

European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg (Germany). Lab rotation in the laboratory of Dr Detlev Arendt. Ciliary photoreceptor birthdating experiments in Platynereis dumerilii. November – December 2010

German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg (Germany). Lab rotation in the laboratory of Dr Michael Boutros. In vivo RNAi screen in D. melanogaster for identification of regulators of Wnt signalling. August - September 2010  

 

Institute of Molecular Biology & Biotechnology (IMBB), Crete (Greece). Thesis in the lab of Dr Domna Karagogeos. Role of adhesion molecules TAG1 and PSA-NCAM in neuronal migration in the developing cerebral cortex. September 2008 – May 2009

 

SELECTED CONFERENCE TALKS

The Allied Genetics Conference. Population, Evolutionary and Quantitative Genetics session. The making of the monarch: A constrained adaptive path to toxin resistance. The Allied Genetics Conference. Online, April 2020

Endless forms: UC Berkeley Symposium on Non-Model Systems. The making of the monarch. University of California, Berkeley. June 2018

Annual Drosophila Research Conference, Genetics Society of America. On the ORigin of olfactory worlds. Philadelphia, PA, USA. April 2018

16th International symposium on Insect-plant relationships. Olfactory specialization contributes in the making of the fruit pest Drosophila suzukii. Tours, France. July 2017

Annual meeting of the doctoral school in biological and health sciences in Aix – Marseille University. The making of a fruit pest: Unraveling the evolution of egg-laying choices in Drosophila suzukii. Marseille, France. June 2014

 

INVITED SEMINARS

Institute for the Diversity, Ecology and Evolution of the Living World. Gif-sur-Yvette, France. Adaptive tracking in response to insecticide pressure in Drosophila. June 2022

Department of Entomology, Michigan State University. Online (In person cancelled due to Covid). Genetics of adaptation to host plant toxins in monarchs. March 2021

Institute for the Diversity, Ecology and Evolution of the Living World. Gif-Sur-Yvette, France. Online (In person cancelled due to Covid). Genetics of adaptation to host plant toxins in the monarch butterfly and other specialist insects. March 2021

Department of Biology, University of San Francisco. Online (In person cancelled due to Covid). Genetics of adaptation to host plant toxins in the monarch butterfly and other specialist insects. November 2020

Innovative Genomics Institute. Undergraduate CRISPR Journal Club (In person cancelled due to Covid). Genome editing as a basic research tool-Poison resistance in insects. April 2020

Essig Museum of Entomology, UC Berkeley, USA. Olfactory specialization contributes in the making of the fruit pest Drosophila suzukii. September 2017

 

MENTORING AND TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Undergraduate Research Mentor at Stanford

• Mentored four undergraduate students

• Two undergraduate students participated as co-authors in manuscript under preparation

• Participated as a mentor in the Stanford Biology Summer Undergraduate Research Program in Summer 2022

 

Undergraduate Research Mentor at UC Berkeley

• Mentored six undergraduate students

• Participated as a mentor in the Berkeley undergraduate Research Apprentice Program from 2017 to 2020

• One undergraduate student participated as co-author in published research

• Co-mentored Honor’s Thesis of two undergraduate students. One undergraduate student received the Outstanding Scholar Award from the Molecular and Cell Biology Department at UC Berkeley

 

Teaching for Science Coding Immersion Program at San Francisco State

• Contributed course material for the Science Coding Immersion Program at San Francisco State University in summer 2022

 

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS AND ACTIVITIES

Genetics Society of America, Society for the Study of Evolution, European Society of Evolutionary Biology

Peer reviewer for Molecular Biology and Evolution

 

OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Participated at Critical Consciousness and Anti-Oppressive Praxis program offered from the Office of Inclusion, Community, and Integrative Learning at Stanford

• Praxis project: Grassroot organization of an association for International Women in the Biosciences at Stanford