Maria Konstantinou

Maria is a Research Assistant in the Unit of Systems Toxicology at the Institute of Environmental Medicine (IMM), Karolinska Institutet. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom, in 2021, and completed her Master's degree in Toxicology at Karolinska Institutet in 2024.

Her research interests focus on environmental and occupational exposure to metal particles, investigated primarily through in vitro methods with an emphasis on extrapolating findings to existing in vivo data. She has extensive experience with a broad range of in vitro techniques, including multiplex immunoassays, genotoxicity assays, and particle characterization methods. Her master’s thesis explored the toxicity of tungsten and molybdenum disulfide metal particles using in vitro models (human bronchial cells, induced macrophages). Additionally, she contributed to the high-throughput toxicity screening of dust extracts using human-derived in vitro models as part of the European project INQUIRE, conducted at the Systems Toxicology Unit (Systox), IMM.

During her time at IMM, both as a master's student and researcher, she further got familiar with culturing organoids and stem cells (iPSCs), and gained hands-on experience with zebrafish as an alternative experimental model.