Local Organizers

Dr. Christina Dalla is Associate Professor at the Dep. of Pharmacology, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, past-President of the Hellenic Society for Neurosciences and President-elect of the Mediterranean Neuroscience Society. She is also member of the board of directors of the newly-founded European Brain Foundation, section-editor at European Journal of Neuroscience, member of the DANA foundation for the Brain and member of the Educational and Scientific Committees of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology. Her work focuses on sex differences in neuropsychiatric disorders and treatment with a focus on depression and anxiety. Dr. Dalla received her first diploma from the Pharmacy School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in 2000 and continued her studies in Neuropsychopharmacology, Behavioral Neuroendocrinology and Neurosciences in Athens, at the University of Liege in Belgium and at the Rutgers University of New Jersey, U.S.A. with two European Union Marie Curie Fellowships. She has received numerous awards and distinctions, such as the “L’Oreal-Unesco” for Greek Women in Science and the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology fellowship award. Dr. Dalla has more than 70 research and review papers, more than 10 invited chapters in international and Greek books, over 4400 citations and more than 130 abstracts and talks at international and national conferences. She serves as a peer-reviewer in more than 20 scientific journals, as well as in Greek, US and European grants and as an external evaluator for the Greek National Organization for Medicines (EOF). Dr. Christina Dalla has participated and leads several research grants (Greek GSRT grants, IBRO, IKYDAD, IKY, Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation, Cohen Veterans Biosciences, Erasmus+ and NIH-R25) with European and Greek collaborators from the academia and the industry. Dr. Dalla is teaching undergraduate and master courses at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens since 2008 and she is the coordinator of the master course Neuropsychopharmacology at the “Athens Internatonal master’s programme in Neurosciences”. Also, she is participating in the organization of Greek and International scientific meetings and she is member of the Scientific Program Committees of MNS 2022, ECNP 2022 and FRM 2023. Dr. Dalla serves at committees, such as the Gender Equality Committee of her University and at the National Medicines Association of Greece. Also, she is an active member of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) Preclinical Data Network Forum and as an expert evaluator at the European Union Research Ethics and Integrity Unit. Finally, as a member of the DANA-alliance for the brain, she is actively participating in public activities for brain awareness, such as publishing of books for the public, and in an Erasmus+ grant “Sharing Good Practices for Brain Education in Europe”.

Dr. Ioannis Sotiropoulos is a Researcher C - Group leader at Institute of Biosciences & Applications, NCSR "Demokritos", Greece. His research work focuses on understanding the orchestrating role of environmental risk factors (e.g., chronic stress) on the onset of Alzheimer´s disease (AD) with a specific focus on the relationship between AD and depression, a stress-related disorder. Combining cell-, animal- and human-based studies, Dr. Sotiropoulos’ innovative work aims to clarify the diverse factors that regulate the cellular role of Tau as a key molecule of neuroplasticity and neuropathology in brain pathology. He has previously trained and worked at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry (Germany), Columbia University (USA), RIKEN-Brain Science Institute (Japan), University College London (UCL) & MRC Center for Synaptic Plasticity (UK), and Medical School of University of Minho (Portugal). His scientific achievements are internationally recognized in the form of prizes & awards e.g., Hirnliga Alzheimer Award 2009, AD/PD Young Faculty 2014 Award, Jerome Lejeune 2017 Award, Janssen Innovation Award 2017, Alzheimer Association Award for Best Mentor in Neuroscience 2021.