Κλάπα Μαρία

Diploma, Chemical Engineering Dept, National Technical University of Athens (N.T.U.A.), Greece, 1995.
Ph.D., Metabolic Engineering & Bioinformatics Group, Chemical Engineering Dept., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, 2001.
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Metabolic Engineering & Bioinformatics Group, Chemical Engineering Dept., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, 2001.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Eukaryotic Functional Genomics & Bioinformatics Group, The Institute for Genomics Research (TIGR) (currently The J. Craig Venter Institute), USA, 2002

MESBL research focuses on:
(a) the experimental and computational analysis of metabolic networks with emphasis in the development and application of methodologies for metabolic flux quantification and metabolomics,
(b) the quantitative systems biology with emphasis in the integrated analyses of high-throughput “omic” data from various levels of cellular function, and
(c) the mathematical modeling of biological systems.
MESBL was the first to establish metabolomics research in Greece and South-Eastern Europe and remains the only specializing in Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) metabolomics.

Associate Researcher (Rank C, tenure-track), FORTH/ICE-HT, 01/2004-04/2010.
Adjunct Professor, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and Bioengineering Departments, University of Maryland, College Park, USA, 07/2005-Present.
Αssistant Professor, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Bioengineering Graduate Program, University of Maryland, College Park, USA, 08/2002-06/2005.
Adjunct Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, USA, 12/2001-08/2002.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Eukaryotic Functional Genomics group of Dr. John Quackenbush, The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) (currently The J. Craig Institute), USA, 01/2002-08/2002.
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Metabolic Engineering and Bioinformatics Laboratory of Prof. Greg Stephanopoulos, Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, 10/2001-12/2001.
Ph.D. Research Assistant, Metabolic Engineering and Bioinformatics Laboratory of Prof. Greg Stephanopoulos, Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, 09/1995-09/2001.
Diploma Thesis Research Assistant, Computational Fluid Dynamics group of A. Boudouvis, Department of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens (N.T.U.A.), Athens, Greece.
I.A.E.S.T.E. summer trainee, Prof. D. Olivari’s group, Environmental and Applied Fluid Dynamics Department, Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Rhode-St-Genese, Belgium, 07/1994-09/1994.
Summer Intern, Hellenic Cement Research Center, Hercules Group (AGET), Likovrissi Attikis, Greece, 07/1993-09/1993

A. Prizes/Awards

1. 1 out 3 Best Poster Presentation Prizes (for my Master’s student D. Symeonidi and co-authors Drs. C. Flytzanis and G. Koumoundouros), 5th Conference of the Hellenic Society for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Alexandroupoli, Greece, October 17-19, 2010.
2. Best Poster Presentation Prize (for my PhD student H. Kanani), Metabolic Engineering and Systems Biology Poster Session, 2006 AIChE Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA, November 15, 2006.
3. Second Best Poster Presentation Award (for my Ph.D. student B. Dutta), ResearchFest of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Dept, University of Maryland College Park, USA, April 27, 2006.
4. Outstanding University of Maryland Invention of 2005 Award in the field of Information Sciences (along with my Ph.D. student H. Kanani) from the Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC), University of Maryland College Park, USA, for the invention “Data Normalization Strategy for Metabolomic Profiling Analysis” (US Patent Application pending), April 10, 2006.
5. Runner-up Prize in the 2006 Business Plan Competition of the University of Maryland in the Graduate Student-Faculty category (along with my Ph.D. student H. Kanani), April 7, 2006.
6. Best Poster Presentation Award at the 19th Panhellenic Neuroscience Conference (for PhD student A. Spathis and my co-authors Drs. I. Antonopoulos, N. Panagopoulos, N. Matsokis, F. Angelatou, V. Episkopou and M. Margarity), Patras, Greece, October 30 – November 2, 2005.
7. Best Poster Presentation Prize (for my PhD student H. Kanani), Biological Engineering category of University of Maryland Bioscience Day, November 2003.
8. Graduate Student Travel Grant (1 out of 3), Topical Conference in Bioinformatics and Genomics, AIChE Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, CA, USA, November 12-17, 2000.
9. Prize for graduating with the highest GPA from the Department of Chemical Engineering, in the year 1995 (class 1990),  National Technical University of Athens, Greece, April 1997.
10. Award from the Technical Chamber of Greece for outstanding academic performance, January 1996.
11. Awards from the Greek State Fellowship Foundation (I.K.Y.) for outstanding academic performance, 1991.
12. Awards from the Greek State Fellowship Foundation (I.K.Y.) for outstanding academic performance, 1992.
13. Awards from the Greek State Fellowship Foundation (I.K.Y.) for outstanding academic performance, 1993.
14. Awards from the Greek State Fellowship Foundation (I.K.Y.) for outstanding academic performance, 1994.
15. Award from the National Technical University of Athens for outstanding academic performance, 1991.

B. Fellowships

1. Fellowship (for 5 semesters) from Empeirikion Foundation (Athens, Greece) to fund my studies in the US, January 1997.
2. Fellowship from the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering,  Cambridge, MA, USA to carry out my PhD studies,  September 1995-August 2001.

C. Other Honours/Distinctions

1. Editorial Board Member of the scientific journal “BMC – Microbial Cell Factories” since July 2005.
2. Ad-hoc reviewer for major metabolic engineering, bioinformatics and systems biology and biotechnology scientific journals since 2001.
3. Review Panel Member of Research Proposals for the Funding Agencies: i) EC-FP7 KBBE and HEALTH, ii) US Department of Energy (DOE) – Genome to Life Program, (iii) US National Institutes of Health (NIH), (iv) US National Science Foundation (NSF), since 2003.
4. Ad-hoc reviewer of research proposals for US NSF, US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), since 2003.
5. 1 of 16 European Researchers selected out of 140 applications by the organizers on behalf of the European Commission (EC) to participate in the ΕU-India Cooperation Days workshop in New Delhi, India, November 4-6 2009.
6. Member of the reviewing committee of the “Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology – Denice Denton Emerging Leader Award” for its inaugural year (2007).
7. Associate Member of Sigma Xi Research Society, since September 1997.

M. Klapa is the PI of a contract with Bayer HealthCare, Berkeley, CA, USA on metabolomics in cell culture engineering and has coordinated a US-NSF project on integrated transcriptomics and metabolomics. She is or has been a partner/member in 1 GSRT ESPA-Collaboration project, 1 EC-FP6-ICT Integrated Project, 1 EC-FP7-HEALTH Large-Scale Project, 1 EC-FP6-Life Long Learning Project and the EC-FP6 European Network of Excellence in Nanobiotechnology, Nano2Life. She is also external collaborator of the University of Patras Interdepartmental Network on Research and Applications in Medical Molecular Genetics.

4 (1 monograph) chapters in books, 16 + 2 (in Press) refereed journal papers, 3 and 6, respectively, papers in refereed international and greek conference proceedings, 2 US and 1 International Patent Applications.

13 (1 keynote) invited presentations; 66 and 18, respectively, oral or poster presentations in international and greek conferences/scientific symposia; Chair/Co-chair or Member of the Organizing or the International Scientific Committee (ISC) of 13 Conferences/Symposia; Session/Workshop chair/co-chair in 11 scientific conferences/symposia.

• Co-organizer (with Prof. N. Moschonas, chair of the University of Patras Interdepartmental Network on Research and Applications in Medical Molecular Genetics), 6th Conference of the Hellenic Society for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (HSCBB), Patras, Greece, September 6-9, 2011.
• ISC member, 3rd International Conference on Bioinformatics and Systems Biology (BSB10), Chongqing, China, July 12-14, 2010.
• International Program Committee (IPC) Co-chair for the Metabolic Engineering Area, 11th Computer Applications in Biotechnology (CAB2010) conference, Leuven, Belgium, July 7-9, 2010.
• ISC member, 2nd International Conference on Drug Discovery and Therapy, Dubai, UE, February 1-4, 2010.
• ISC member, 2nd International Conference on Bioinformatics and Systems Biology (BSB09), Leipzig, Germany, March 23-25, 2009.
• ISC member, 2008 International Conference on Bioinformatics, Systems Biology and Artificial Life (BSBAL08), Glasgow, UK, July 22-24, 2008.
• ISC member, 10th Computer Applications in Biotechnology (CAB2007) conference, Cancun, Mexico, June 4-8, 2007.
• ISC member, Engineering for Life Division of the 7th World Congress of Chemical Engineering, Glasgow, UK, July 10-14, 2005.
• Co-chair for 3 years (2001-2003), Bioinformatics Topical Conference in the Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).

• Member of the Hellenic Association of Chemical Engineers (ΠΣΧΜ).
• Member of the Technical Chamber of Greece (T.E.E.).
• Member of the Hellenic Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (HSΒΜΒ).
• Member of the Hellenic Society for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (HSCBB).
• Member of the Hellenic Society of Neurosciences (HSN).
• Member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).
• Member of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
• Member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
• Associate Member of the Sigma Xi Research Society.

• Bioinformatics (elective for undergraduate seniors), 8th semester of the four-year curriculum, Department of Biology, U. Patras (3 hours per week)  (50% of teaching load during the Spring Semester 2004; full teaching load since Spring Semester 2005).
• Introduction to the experimental and computational aspects of transcriptomic, metabolomic and metabolic flux analyses (intensive 18-hour course), 3rd semester of the 2-year curriculum, Bioinformatics Direction, Interdepartmental Graduate Program, “Informatics in Life Sciences”, Medical School, U. Patras (since 2005).
• Bioinformatics and Systems Biology (elective), 2nd semester of the 2-year curriculum, Interdepartmental Graduate Program “Mathematical Modeling in New Technologies and Economics”, School of Applied Mathematical and Physical Sciences, National Technical University of Athens (since 2004).
• Introduction to Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, Spring Semester of the 1-year Master’s Program, Horticultural Genetics and Biotechnology Division, Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (MAICH) (since 2009).

• C.Constantinou, PK Chrysanthopoulos, M Margarity, MI Klapa. 2010. GC-MS metabolic analysis reveals significant alterations in cerebellar metabolic physiology in a mouse model of adult onset hypothyroidism. J. Proteome Res. Epub Oct 28, 2010, doi:10.1021/pr100699m.
• P. K. Chrysanthopoulos, C. T. Goudar, M.I. Klapa. 2010. Metabolomics for High-Resolution Monitoring of the Cellular Physiological State in Cell Culture Engineering. Metab Eng 12:212-22.
• B. Dutta, H. Kanani, J. Quackenbush and M.I. Klapa. 2009. Time-series integrated “omic” analyses to elucidate short-term stress-induced responses in plant liquid cultures. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 102:264-79.
• H. Kanani, P. K. Chrysanthopoulos and M.I. Klapa. 2008. Standardizing GC-MS metabolomics.J. Chromatogr. B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci.871: 191-201.
• Κanani H. and Klapa M.I. 2006. Data Correction Strategy for Metabolomics Analysis using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry, Metab Eng 9:39-51(subject of U.S. Patent Application No. 11/362,717.  Publication No.: US-2006-0200316-A1 Date: September 7, 2006).