I qualified in veterinary medicine and surgery (DVM, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) in 1987.

In 1988 I was awarded a postgraduate scholarship at the Department of Animal Husbandry, University of Bristol. In 1992 I was awarded a PhD for my thesis ‘A cytogenetic study female meiosis in cattle’

From 1992 until 2002 I worked in the field of reproductive pathology.

I moved to the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (now the Animal and Plant Health Agency) in 2002, where I joined the Neuropathology group working on the pathology of animal transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE), predominantly BSE and scrapie. My research has focused on TSE pathogenesis and strain characterization of natural field cases and experimental models of prion disease in the original hosts and in wild-type and transgenic experimental animal models. I have led and been involved in Defra, Food Standards Agency and EU funded projects. I have also been involved in collaborative projects with national and international partners. I have participated in the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee meetings, I am a member of the Strain Typing Expert Group (STEG) on TSEs which advises the EU on emerging TSE strains and I am included in the TSE experts group at EFSA. I provide diagnostic consultancy and policy advice to statutory TSE surveillance activities at both a national and international level as a member of the EU Reference Laboratory for TSE. My work in TSE has been my main research focus since 2002 and I am the author in 43 publications in the field of TSE Neuropathology.