I am currently undertaking my fourth year of MEng in Biochemical Engineering. I am half Cypriot and half Italian but I grew up and had my formal secondary education in Cyprus. I studied Advanced Maths, Biology, Chemistry during high school but also undertook my A-levels privately in both three subjects and I achieved 3 As in order to be accepted at UCL. While I was considering studying Medicine initially, my passion for all the life sciences and my inquisitiveness drove me to choose the subject of Biochemical Engineering where I could apply all of them in one degree. I fell in love with this degree quickly after my first few days at UCL. What I particularly enjoyed throughout this degree is the ability to combine engineering and life sciences concepts to solve many interdisciplinary challenges in areas of biopharmaceutical and biofuel production as well as synthetic biology and cell and gene therapy manufacture. My great interest in healthcare, led me to choose the Regenerative Medicine minor which completely changed my perspective of modern therapeutics. This made me recognise the powerful capabilities of this novel class of cell and gene therapeutics for curative potential in the areas of oncology and rare genetic disorders and the huge impact of Biochemical Engineering for their manufacture. Throughout my years in the Department I had the ability to participate in two summer research projects through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Scheme. Particularly, I was involved in the international Genetically Engineered Machines synthetic biology competition, where in a team of seven we created a proof-of-concept bacterial nanoparticle drug delivery vehicle for breast cancer therapy. This project was awarded with a gold metal and classified in the best 5 therapeutic projects in the competition. During my third year I was involved in two term-long projects including the bioprocess development for monoclonal antibody production for infectious diseases, for which I was awarded the “UCL-AstraZeneca Centre of Excellence Design Project Prize”, and bioprocess development for production of novel CAR T immunotherapies for leukaemia.
Ambassador Quote. 2021. Biodata.