Rank/Position: Associate Professor, University of Thessaly

Scientific Field: Technology, Quality and Safety of Animal-Origin Foods

Faculty/Department/Research Institution: Department of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Thessaly

Student Contact Hours: Tuesday: 13:00-15:00, Wednesday: 12:00-14:00, Thursday: 12:00-14:00

Dr. Myrsini Kakagianni is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, School of Agricultural Sciences, University of Thessaly, with a subject area of ​​“Technology, Quality and Safety of Animal-Origin Foods”. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Biology with a focus on Molecular Biology, Genetics and Biotechnology (Department of Biology) and her Master’s Degree in Food Science and Technology (Department of Food Science and Technology, School of Agriculture) from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in 2008 and 2010 respectively. She continued her studies at the same department (Department of Food Science and Technology, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) from where she obtained her PhD in 2018. The title of her doctoral thesis was: “Development and application of mathematical models for predicting the behavior of thermophilic spore-forming bacteria in foods”.

She then carried out postdoctoral research at the Laboratory of Plant and Environmental Biotechnology (Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology of the University of Thessaly). Since 2010, she has participated as a Researcher and member of Research Groups in 4 European (Delicious, Excel4Med, Q-SAFE, ProSafeBeef – FP6, EUPA) and 9 national (ELIDEK – TranSeafood, Measure 16 – INNOVAPOULTRY, ELIDEK – BeMost, Research-Create-Innovate 2nd Cycle – ForFUN, National Flagship Action “OLIVE ROADS”, ProbioDairyMeat, THALIS, MOIKOM – ERDF and OPCEII, NSRF 2007-2013) funded projects and in 2 self-funded projects.

Her research interests include the study and improvement of food quality and safety, the development of quantitative microbiology tools (mathematical models) and (microbiological and chemical) hazard determination, the study of food shelf life, microbial interactions, the microencapsulation of probiotic microorganisms in milk and meat products for incorporation with enhanced protection, the study of microbiomes. The results of her research have been published in 15 research papers in international scientific journals of SCI, 2 chapters in books and 39 proceedings of international and national scientific conferences with 2 of which participations as an invited speaker, while her published work has 211 references and an h=8 index. In total, she has participated in 27 seminars (workshops) and conferences. From 2018 to present, she is a member of 10 editorial boards of the journals Food Research International, International Journal of Food Microbiology, Food Control, Food Microbiology, International Dairy Journal, Journal of Aquatic Food Product Technology, Frontiers in Microbiology – Food Microbiology, Journal of Applied Microbiology, The Microbe, npj Science of Food, invited reviewer for the evaluation of funded research proposals for the National Science Center, Poland (2021) and for the 4th and 5th International Congress on Applied Ichthyology, Oceanography & Aquatic Environment (HydroMedit 2021, 2024) and a member of the Hellenic Scientific Society MICROBIOKOSMOS, International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) and the Applied Microbiology International (AMI) journal, while she provided advice and support on foodborne diseases during brainstorming sessions in the IGEM group (Amalthea research project) Thessaly 2020.

She has participated as a research member of the MAH (Microbiology And Hygiene Group) (Laboratory of Microbiology and Food Hygiene, Department of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) in the 6th campaign “Spin your Thesis!-2015” of the European Space Agency (07-18/09/15) at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (research topic of the proposal: “Effect of hypergravity on the thermal resistance of microbes”) and received an Excellence Award from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. At the same time, microbial growth data have been uploaded to the Combase database (https://browser.combase.cc) (07/03/2019) for the articles “Kakagianni, M. (et al.), 2016: Development and application of Geobacillus stearothermophilus growth model for predicting spoilage of evaporated milk. Food Microbiology. 57:28-35″ and “Kakagianni, M (et al.), 2018: Development and validation of predictive models for the effect of storage temperature and pH on the growth boundaries and kinetics of Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris ATCC 49025 in fruit drinks. Food Microbiology. 74:40-49”.