Evangelia Christou - Secondment from from HPI to UNG

During her research secondment under the EXPAND-EV project, Evangelia Christou from the Hellenic Pasteur Institute (HPI) joined the University of Nova Gorica (UNG) from September 9 to October 21, 2025. Her stay focused on gaining practical experience in recombinant protein expression and nanobody screening workflows.

Her work involved the bacterial expression of His-tagged proteins, purification using FPLC- based affinity chromatography, and quality verification by SDS-PAGE. Evangelia also participated in panning experiments employing beads coated with soluble antigens and performed ELISA-based screening assays to assess binder specificity and affinity. Furthermore, she attended the “Nanobodies Workshop: Binder Recovery by In Silico and In Vivo Panning” (22–26 September 2025), gaining valuable insight into computational and experimental methods for nanobody identification. This training period strengthened her technical skills in protein engineering and binder discovery, enhancing collaborative research efforts within the EXPAND-EV network.