Magdalini Panagiotakopoulos

Project

Lipid nanoparticles for targeted cancer therapies

Fellowships

The Tow Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (2022-present)

NIH T32 Cancer Pharmacology Training Grant (2020-2022)

Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/magdalini-panagiotakopoulos-bb522b40/

Magdalini is an interdisciplinary scientist working at the interface of chemical engineering, nanotechnology, and translational biology. She holds a Diploma in Chemical Engineering from NTUA, Greece and a PhD in Bioengineering from ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Before joining MSKCC, she served as R&D Manager at a diagnostics startup in Zurich. There, she built two research labs from scratch and led a team of 10 scientists and engineers through preclinical product development.

At MSKCC, her research combines molecular design with human biology to treat immune dysregulation in both cancer and non-cancerous diseases. This work has led to two precision therapeutic platforms: targeted nanoparticles for kidney injury in bone marrow transplant recipients, and a delivery system designed to eliminate senescent (dormant but therapy-resistant) pancreatic cancer cells.

In parallel, Magdalini has built a machine learning framework to predict how nanoparticles assemble and hold drugs based on their chemical structure. This innovation transforms what was historically a slow, trial-and-error process into a precise, data-driven discipline.

Her research has been recognized with the AI in Drug Delivery Award from the Controlled Release Society and the Hellenic Medical Society Postdoc Award, alongside competitive fellowship and grant support from the NIH and the Tow Foundation.

Recent Awards

• American Heart Association (AHA) Rapid Impact Research Award (2026): Magdalini Panagiotakopoulou was awarded funding to support research on targeted nanotherapeutic strategies for kidney injury and disease progression.
• 10x Genomics Xenium In Situ Grant Program (2026): Magdalini Panagiotakopoulou was awarded a grant (in collaboration with MSK Integrated Genomics Operation) to spatially profile senescence-associated gene expression in human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma patient samples following pre-operative radiation therapy.
• Travel Award – 3rd Probing Human Disease using Single-Cell Technologies Conference (Fusion Conferences, 2026): Awarded for presentation of work on single-cell profiling of the tumor microenvironment in pancreatic cancer.