Dr. Thalia Liargkova

Department of Health Sciences

Dr Thalia Liargkova is a Teaching and Research Faculty Member in Medicinal Chemistry in the Department of Health Sciences, School of Life and Health Sciences at UNIC Athens, where she teaches Pharmaceutical Chemistry I (lectures and laboratory) in the Pharmacy Programme. She is a pharmacist (PharmD) and holds a PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, where she carried out her doctoral research under the supervision of Professor Dimitra Hadjipavlou-Litina. She also holds an MSc in Production and Quality Control of Pharmaceutical Products (AUTH/NKUA) and an MSc in Healthcare Management (Hellenic Open University). Her research focuses on the design of multitarget-directed ligands, compounds that act on more than one biological target at the same time, with applications in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and in cancer. Her scientific interests include the synthesis of hybrid compounds bearing the enone moiety, such as chalcones and pyrimidine derivatives, structure–activity relationships and QSAR studies, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity, lipoxygenase and acetylcholinesterase inhibition, and the modulation of ferroptosis. From 2020 to 2023 she carried out independent postdoctoral research at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki as a fellow of the State Scholarships Foundation (IKY), working on the design, synthesis and biological evaluation of new pleiotropic hybrid amino- and mercapto-pyrimidine derivatives bearing the enone moiety. Her work has been published in international peer-reviewed journals, including Molecules, the Journal of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry and Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry, and presented at international and national scientific conferences, including the symposia of the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology (EFMC). She received a Best Poster Award at the 16th Panhellenic Pharmaceutical Congress and a travel fellowship from the Hellenic Society of Medicinal Chemistry. Alongside her research career, Dr Liargkova has many years of professional experience as a pharmacist. Before joining UNIC Athens, she held a permanent post as hospital pharmacist at Hippokration General Hospital of Thessaloniki (2022–2026), where she headed the Cytotoxic Drug Preparation Unit and gained experience in oncology pharmacy and hospital drug management; earlier, she worked in community pharmacies. She has taught as an Adjunct Lecturer (P.D. 407/80) at the School of Pharmacy of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and has been an invited speaker at the School’s Practical Training Seminars. She is a certified adult educator and a member of the Hellenic Society of Medicinal Chemistry and the EFMC. Her combined research and hospital experience supports a teaching approach that links medicinal chemistry with the clinical use of medicines.