Sophia Maschalidi is a Principal Investigator at NIMSB, where she explores the molecular and cellular biology of phagocytosis. Her work focuses on how effective cell clearance drives tissue repair, regulates inflammation, and protects tissues from damage. A key part of her work involves examining cell clearance directly in its native environment by profiling the dynamic transcriptomic, interactomic, and epigenomic landscapes of phagocytes and their neighboring cells.
Sophia completed her studies in Molecular Biology and Genetics in Greece before moving to Paris, where she conducted her doctoral research at the Curie Institute and earned her PhD in Immunology from the University of Paris Descartes. She then joined the laboratories of Geneviève de Saint Basile and Alain Fischer at the Imagine Institute, where she developed a new murine model and a novel therapeutic strategy to study Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytic (HLH) syndrome, a severe and life‑threatening immune disorder.
After receiving a prestigious Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship, she joined the lab of Professor Kodi Ravichandran at the VIB‑UGent Center for Inflammation Research. There, she expanded her work on phagocytosis, identifying dendritic cells as key regulators of efferocytosis in the skin and opening new possibilities for improving the treatment of chronic cutaneous wounds.
Since 2023, Sophia has led the Phagocytosis and Tissue Repair Lab at the VIB Center for Inflammation Research and serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Molecular Biology at Ghent University. Her research has resulted in highly cited publications (≈3000 citations; H‑index 19, Google Scholar), appearances in high‑impact journals, patent applications, and numerous invited talks and featured profiles.