DC 13: Christina Maria Kazakou
Christina Maria Kazakou (Greece) holds an Integrated Master’s degree in Pharmacy from the University of Patras in Greece, where she graduated with distinction. She subsequently completed her MSc in Drug Discovery and Development with a specialization in Medicinal Chemistry – Natural Products at the same university, again achieving top honors.
Her academic and research background includes work on the synthesis of novel steroidal androgen receptor degraders (PROTACs). As part of a six-month Erasmus+ traineeship, she joined the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) in Germany, where she worked under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Anna Hirsch on the design and synthesis of novel Darobactin A analogues with potential antimicrobial activity.
Since July 2025, she has been working as a PhD candidate under the supervision of Prof. Matthias Wymann and the co-supervision of Prof. Dennis Gillingham. Her research focuses on the establishment of novel covalent inhibitors targeting PI3K/mTOR while minimizing adverse effects.
In parallel with her academic development, Christina has been actively engaged in volunteering and student initiatives, including participation in bioethics and pharmaceutical law debates, awareness campaigns for breast cancer, and the organization of scientific events, workshops, and networking activities for pharmacy students.
Planned secondments: 2 months at the University of Tübingen for exchange of covalent strategies and compound testing/validation. 3 months at BioSolveIT for mTOR/PI3K drug modelling. 2 months at IMol for screening on zebrafish brain mutants
University of Tübingen
2 monthsTübingen, Germany
BioSolveIT
3 monthsSankt Augustin, Germany
IMOL
2 monthsWarsaw, Poland
My research project
PI3K and mTOR kinase inhibition are vital strategies for limiting cell growth in mTORopathies and cancer. However, it can lead to mechanism-based adverse effects especially drug-induced insulin resistance, causing hyperglycemia and elevated insulin levels. To minimize these adverse effects, we are developing inhibitors with a durable covalent and specific action on PI3Ka while sparing PI3Kb which has a redundant function in insulin signaling. The doctoral canddiate will circumvent a partial bypass of PI3Ka inhibition observed in previous studies by concomitantly targeting the mTOR kinase in a reversible manner. This will be achieved by adapting the reversible binding module of our inhibitors, which gives rise to different selectivities across the PI3K and PIKK family as we have previously shown by > 800 structural variations. Our covalent inhibitors will be fully characterized by measuring kchem, Ki (vs. PI3K and PIKK), kinact, cellular potencies for pathway (phosphorylation of Akt, S6K, S6, 4EBP etc), growth inhibition, and more. Resistance and escape mechanisms, time on target, and re-entry into protein synthesis and translation will be evaluated. Efficacy and adverse effects will be evaluated for key compounds in in vitro and in vivo mTORopathy models.
PhD enrolment : 
DC 12: Sofia Garcia Vazquez