Maria Eleni studied Pharmacy at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, where her Bachelor's thesis focused on implementing in silico methodologies in drug discovery. She then earned her Master's degree in Biosciences from Utrecht University (the Netherlands), investigating the protective potential of prebiotic fibers on a leaky gut and the role of the enteric nervous system in Parkinson’s disease. Her main research interest lies in stem cell research and its application in translational neuroscience using advanced in vitro models. Currently, she is a PhD candidate at the Pompeu Fabra University in Spain, researching the etiology of vestibular disorders using inner ear organoids and CRISPR technology.