Myrsini Kakagianni
Assistant Professor
Technology, Quality and Safety of Food of Animal Origin
Scientific research fields
Microbiological Quality and Safety of foods, Predictive Microbiology, Microbial Risk Assessment, Shelf-life Studies, Microbial Interactions and Microbial Diversity of foods, Microencapsulation of probiotic microorganisms in dairy and meat products.
Brief CV
Dr. Myrsini Kakagianni is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Food Science and Nutrition of the School of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Thessaly with specialty “Technology, Quality and Safety of Foods of Animal Origin”. She received her B.Sc. degree in Biology with a specialty in Molecular Biology, Genetics and Biotechnology (School of Biology) and her M.Sc. in Food Science and Technology (Department of Food Science and Technology, School of Agriculture) from AUTh, in 2008 and 2010, respectively. She was awarded her Ph.D. degree from the same Department in 2018. She then served as a postdoc researcher at the Laboratory of Plant and Environmental Biotechnology (Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, UTh). From 2010, she has participated as a Research Associate and as a Member of Research Team in 4 EU-funded (Delicious, Excel4Med, Q-SAFE, ProSafeBeef – FP6, EUPA) and 9 nationally funded (ELIDEK – TranSeafood, Metro 16 – INNOVAPOULTRY, ELIDEK – BeMost, Research-Create-Innovate 2nd Cycle – ForFUN, National Flagship Action “ROADS OF THE OLIVE TREE”, ProbioDairyMeat, THALIS, MOIKOM – ERDF and OPCEII, NSRF 2007-2013) and 2 self-funded projects projects. Recent research efforts have centered on the microbiological quality and safety of foods, the development of quantitative microbiology tools (mathematical models) and risk (microbial and chemical) assessment, shelf-life studies, microbial interactions and microbial diversity of foods (micorbiomes), microencapsulation of probiotic microorganisms in dairy and meat products. The research results have been presented and published at 15 research papers in international scientific journal of SCI, 2 book chapters and 39 papers in international and national scientific conference proceedings with 2 of which participations as a guest presenter, with 211 citations and h-index 8. In total, she has participated in 27 workshops and conferences. From 2018, she is a member of editorial boards of of 9 journals: Food Research International, Food Control, Food Microbiology, International Dairy Journal, Journal of Aquatic Food Product Technology, Frontiers in Microbiology – Food Microbiology, Journal of Applied Microbiology, The Microbe, npj Science of Food, invited reviewer for the evaluation of funded research proposals for the National Science Center, Poland (2021) and for the 4th and 5th International Congress on Applied Ichthyology, Oceanography & Aquatic Environment
(HydroMedit 2021, 2024) and a member of the Hellenic Scientific Society MICROBIOKOSMOS, International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) and the Applied Microbiology International (AMI) journal, while she provided advice and support on foodborne diseases during brainstorming sessions in the IGEM group (Amalthea research project) Thessaly 2020. She has also participated as a research member of the MAH team (Microbiology And Hygiene Group) (Laboratory of Food Hygiene and Microbiology, Department of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) in the 6th campaign “Spin your Thesis!-2015″of the European Space Agency (07-18/09/15), held at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) (research topic of the proposal: “Effect of hypergravity on microbial heat resistance”) and received the Award of Excellence from AUTh. Microbial growth data have been uploaded to the Combase database (https://browser.combase.cc) (07/03/2019) for the articles “Kakagianni, M. (et al.), 2016: Development and application of Geobacillus stearothermophilus growth model for predicting spoilage of evaporated milk. Food Microbiology. 57:28-35″ and “Kakagianni, M (et al.), 2018: Development and validation of predictive models for the effect of storage temperature and pH on the growth boundaries and kinetics of Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris ATCC 49025 in fruit drinks. Food Microbiology. 74:40-49”.
Courses
Quality, Sensory Quality Control and Authenticity of Foods, Technology and Quality Control of Milk and Milk Products, Food Hygiene and Safety, Quality and Safety Management in the Food Industry, Technology and Quality Control of Meat and Meat Products, Technology and Quality Control of Fish and Fishery Products.
Selected publications
Kakagianni M., Gougouli M. and Koutsoumanis K.P. (2016). Development and application of Geobacillus stearothermophilus growth model for predicting spoilage of evaporated milk. Food Microbiology, 57, 28-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fm.2016.01.001.
Kakagianni M., Aguirre J.S., Lianou A. and Koutsoumanis K.P. (2017). Effect of storage temperature on the lag time of Geobacillus stearothermophilus individual spores. Food Microbiology, 67, 76-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fm.2017.04.009
Kakagianni, M., Kalantzi, K., Beletsiotis, E., Ghikas, D., Lianou, A. and Koutsoumanis, K.P. (2018). Development and validation of predictive models for the effect of storage temperature and pH on the growth boundaries and kinetics of Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris ATCC 49025 in fruit drinks. Food Microbiology, 74, 40-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fm.2018.02.019.
Kakagianni, M. and Koutsoumanis, K.P. (2018). Mapping the risk of evaporated milk spoilage in the Mediterranean region based on the effect of temperature conditions on Geobacillus stearothermophilus growth. Food Research International, 111, 104-110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2018.05.002.
Kakagianni, M. and Koutsoumanis, K.P. (2019). Assessment of Escherichia coli O157:H7 growth in ground beef in the Greek chill chain. Food Research International, 123, 590-600. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2019.05.033.
Kakagianni, M. Chatzitzika, C. Koutsoumanis, K.P. and Valdramidis, V. (2020). The impact of high-power ultrasound for controlling spoilage by Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris: a population and a single spore assessment. Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifset.2020.102405.
