PhD defense of Artemis Efstratiou

17 December 2024

Photo: A. Efstratiou

Congratulations to Artemis Efstratiou for successfully defending her PhD thesis

We congratulate Artemis on her successful PhD defense about the characterization of MHC variation and T cell repertoire diversity in threes-spined sticklebacks. As she started her PhD while the Lenz lab was still located at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, which is associated with the University of Kiel, she defended her PhD thesis in Kiel. 

In her PhD project, Artemis developed a new approach to study the genetic variation of MHC immune genes in sticklebacks and investigated the dynamics of the T cell receptor repertoire in sticklebacks under different experimental conditions. The three-spined stickleback is an important model species for understanding eco-immunological mechanisms. Her work provides important insights into the extent of inter-individual heterogeneity in antigen-specific immunity in vertebrates.

Her first thesis chapter is already published, and there are more to come!