Dr. Maria Tsoumakidou was born in Athens, Greece, in 1975. She received her Medicine Degree (M.D.) in 2000 and her Doctorate (PhD) in 2004 from the University of Crete, Greece. She finished her Post-Doctoral studies in 2006 at Imperial College, London. She is a certified Pulmonary Specialist since 2007. Her early work focused on understanding the function of cellular and molecular components of the respiratory immune system in the context of COPD and their clinical implication. With co-workers she elucidated a critical mechanism of ectopic lymphoid follicle formation in the lungs of patients with COPD: chronic inflammation activates lung B cells to express lymphotoxin, in turn up-regulating CXCL13, which creates a positive feedback loop and promotes B cell migration. In parallel studies, she yielded critical insights into the molecular and cellular links between recurrent respiratory tract infections, such as occurs in patients with COPD, and inflammation-induced immunosuppression. In specific, she identified for the first time the existence of an immunosuppressive cell network encompassing regulatory lung CD1c+ dendritic cells and Tregs in COPD. Her current research activities focus on elucidating the mechanisms of lung cancer immune evasion. Building on her earlier work, she is testing the hypothesis that chronic inflammation promotes lung cancer immune evasion by suppressing dendritic cells and is further working to identify novel molecular and cellular pathways exploited by lung cancer cells to suppress dendritic cells. She aims to construct a conceptual framework of the link between dendritic cells and lung cancer and hopes to identify novel therapeutic targets that can switch from tumor tolerance to anti-tumor immunity. She has 24 first/last author peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals (personalized IF: 109, personalized citations 432, h-index: 15, as of Oct 2015). The Hellenic Thoracic Society has granted her for her studies with 90.000 euro in total. 

Testing the hypothesis that chronic inflammation promotes lung cancer immune evasion by suppressing dendritic cells and is further working to identify novel molecular and cellular pathways exploited by lung cancer cells to suppress dendritic cells. She aims to construct a conceptual framework of the link between dendritic cells and lung cancer and hopes to identify novel therapeutic targets that can switch from tumor tolerance to anti-tumor immunity.