RESEARCH INTERESTS
ABOUT/BIOGRAPHY
Dr Sevasti – Kiriaki Zervou graduated the Chemistry Department (2009) of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (UOA), and received her master degree in Chemical Analysis and Quality Control (2011) and her PhD degree in the field of analytical chemistry (2018) from UOA in collaboration with NCSR “Demokritos” under the supervision of Dr. A. Hiskia. She has joined the group of Photo-Catalytic Processes and Environmental Chemistry Laboratory, Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology of NCSR “Demokritos” from 2007 and she has been employed in several national and competitive EU projects as a research scientist. In addition, she is analyst at the accredited (according to ISO 17025) Laboratory of Environmental
Analysis of NCSR “Demokritos”, which is the unique accredited laboratory in Europe for the analysis of cyanotoxins.
Her research mainly focuses on environmental analysis of cyanotoxins and on identification of bioactive secondary metabolites of cyanobacteria by mass spectrometry, including the following topics:
- Development of novel analytical methods (SPE, LC-MS/MS) for the determination of multi-class cyanobacterial toxins and peptides in environmental matrices (freshwater, cyanobacterial cells).
- Investigation of the toxic profile of freshwater cyanobacteria and marine microorganisms with LC-MS/MS and LC-HRMS in combination to advanced software tools and databases.
- Structure elucidation of new cyanobacterial peptides based on fragmentation mass spectra.
- Identification of cyanobacterial metabolites transformation products (TPs) under environmental and water treatment conditions.
- Studies on cyanobacterial peptides bioactivity.
Her research activities also include the method development and the analysis of emerging pollutants, pesticides, PAHs, Taste and Odor Compounds (T&Os), and other organic compounds by mass spectrometry in water, soil and other environmental matrixes. She has been awarded twice by the Hellenic Mass Spectrometry Society (HMSS) and has earned a grand by the International Mass Spectrometry Foundation (IMSF) and a post-doctoral fellowship by the Greek State Scholarships Foundation (ΙΚΥ). She has participated in three COST Actions (WaterTOP COST Action CA18225, CYANOCOST Action ES1105, and NETLAKE (ESSEM) COST Action ES1201). Up to date, she has published 20 research papers in international peer-reviewed journals (h-index 11), 2 book chapters and has more than 40 presentations in International Conferences.