Dr Maria Chondronikola
Dr Maria Chondronikola is a research scientist in human nutritional physiology and experimental medicine.
Her research focuses on elucidating the mechanisms that regulate metabolic function and energy homeostasis in humans, with a particular emphasis on obesity and its associated complications, including insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia, and hepatic steatosis.
Dr Chondronikola began her academic journey with a degree in Nutritional Science and Dietetics from Harokopio University of Athens, Greece. She then pursued clinical training and graduate studies in Clinical Nutrition at New York University as a Fulbright Fellow. During this time, she recognised a critical gap in the mechanistic understanding of the role of nutrition in the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases -a realisation that shaped the direction of her future research.
To address this gap, she pursued a PhD in Nutrition and Metabolism at the University of Texas Medical Branch, supported by the Onassis Foundation. There, she received rigorous training in human metabolic research and phenotyping. Following her doctoral studies, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Obesity Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine, funded by the American Heart Association.
In 2019, Dr Chondronikola joined the University of California, Davis, as an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Nutrition and Radiology. In 2023, she moved to the UK and joined the University of Cambridge, where she currently serves as a Principal Investigator at the Institute of Metabolic Science.
Select publications
- Panagiotou G, Babazadeh D, Mazza DF, Azghadi S, Cawood JM, Rosenberg AS., Imamura F, Forouhi NG, Chaudari AJ, Abdelhafez YG, Badawi RD, Chondronikola M. Brown Adipose Tissue Is Associated with Reduced Weight loss and Risk of Cancer Cachexia: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Clin Nutr. 2025 Feb;45:262-269.
- Abdelhafez YG, Wang G, Li S, Chaudari AJ, Ramirez A, Sen F, Sidossis LS, Klein S, Badawi RD, Chondronikola M. The role of brown adipose tissue in branched-chain amino acid clearance in people. iScience 2024;27(8):110559.
- Chondronikola M, Yoshino J, Ramaswamy R, Giardina JD, Laforest R, Wahl RL, Patterson BW, Mittendorfer B, Klein S. Very low-density lipoprotein triglyceride and free fatty acid plasma kinetics in women with overweight/obesity and high or low brown adipose tissue volume. Cell Reports Medicine. 2024. 16;5(1):101370.
- Petersen MC, Gallop MR, Flores Ramos S, Zarrinpar A, Broussard JL, Chondronikola M, Chaix A, Klein S. Complex Physiology and Clinical Implications of Time-restricted Eating. Physiol Rev. 2022 Oct 1;102(4):1991-2034.
- Chondronikola M, Magkos F, Yoshino J, Okunade AL, Patterson BW, Muehlbauer MJ, Newgard CB, Klein S. Effect of progressive weight loss on lactate metabolism: A randomized controlled trial. Obesity (Silver Spring, Md). 2018;26(4):683-8.
- Chondronikola M, Volpi E, Børsheim E, Porter C, Saraf MK, Annamalai P, Yfanti C, Chao T, Wong D, Shinoda K, Labbe SM, Hurren NM, Cesani F, Kajimura S, Sidossis LS. Brown adipose tissue activation is linked to distinct systemic effects on lipid metabolism in humans. Cell Metab. 2016;23(6):1200-6.
- Porter C, Herndon DN, Chondronikola M, Chao T, Annamalai P, Bhattarai N, Saraf MK, Capek KD, Reidy PT, Daquinag AC, Kolonin MG, Rasmussen BB, Borsheim E, Toliver-Kinsky T, Sidossis LS. Human and mouse brown adipose tissue mitochondria have comparable UCP1 function. Cell Metab. 2016;24(2):246-55.
- Chondronikola M, Volpi E, Børsheim E, Porter C, Annamalai P, Enerback S, Lidell M, Saraf M, Labbe S, Hurren N, Yfanti C, Chao T, Andersen C, Cesani F, Hawkins H, Sidossis L. Brown adipose tissue improves whole body glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity in humans. Diabetes. 2014;63(12):4089-99.
Select awards
- Fulbright Scholar
- Onassis Foundation Doctoral Fellow
- American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellow
- Rank Foundation, New Lecturer in Nutrition
Further links
https://www.mrl.ims.cam.ac.uk/staff/dr-maria-chondronikola