Dr Maria Christofidou is an adjunct faculty member at the department of Life and Health Sciences since 2011, as well as a Problem-Based Learning tutor, at the Medical School of the University of Nicosia since 2013. She holds a BSc on in Applied Biology from Northumbria University, at Newcastle (2004); an MSc in Medical Genetics from Glasgow University (2005); and a PhD on in Genetics/Genomic Epidemiology from the University of Manchester (2010), during which she investigated the Genetic Basis of Childhood Eczema, studying candidate genes. Dr Christofidou has attended and presented extensively at international conferences, was a member of the Genetics Journal Club of the ARC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Manchester, and a European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) junior member who has been was awarded an EAACI travel grant to attend the EAACI 2008 Congress held in Barcelona in 2008, as well as the “Applied Sciences Prize for personal development in the Division of Biological and Food Science”. From May 2011 until March 2016, she was a research affiliate at the Mediterranean Centre for Cancer Research.

Dr Christofidou has over 15 years teaching experience and laboratory research at university level, both in Cyprus and the UK. Her teaching involves a wide range of biology-related subjects, including basic and advanced biology, genetics and research methods at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Her research interests include cancer genetics, epidemiology, genomic epidemiology, nutrigenomics and nutrigenetics. In 2013, she was elected a member of the Board of Directors of the “One Dream, One Wish” Cyprus association for children with cancer and related diseases.