DrDespoina Chrysostomou

Despoina is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Division of Digestive Diseases within the Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction at Imperial College London. She completed her PhD at Imperial, supported by the STRATiGRAD program (co-funded by the MRC and Servier Pharmaceuticals), where her research explored the impact of the gut microbiome on chemotherapy efficacy. She is leading the ChemoGut project, an ongoing longitudinal prospective clinical study, investigating the role of microbiome in regulating the pharmacological effects of chemo/immuno-therapeutic agents used for colorectal cancer treatment.

Currently, she is part of the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) Digestive Health Theme, where she applies multi-omic approaches, including next-generation sequencing and metabolomics, to identify microbial markers associated with health and disease. Her work also encompasses clinical and translational research into microbiome-based interventions, including the development of oral capsule formulations for intestinal/ faecal microbiota transplant (IMT/ FMT) delivery.