Despoina is the most recent Ph.D. student but one of the oldest members of the MCAC group. Under the supervision of Professor Trougakos she is focusing on studying the role of the proteostasis network in aging and carcinogenesis. She has obtained both her Bachelor’s and her Master’s degree in the Faculty of Biology at the NKUA. She excels in cellular and molecular biology techniques, cell culturing and confocal laser microscopy. Moreover, she is recently practicing on her mice handling skills, with which she became familiar during her undergraduate internship in the Laboratory of Immunobiology, BRFAA. She has actively participated in EU-funded projects that focus on studying potential biological activity of plant- or marine-derived natural products. Despoina has contributed to the authorship of research articles in peer-reviewed journals, book chapter and has presented her research in national and international conferences.