Sofia Jaho

Sofia graduated from the Chemical Engineering Department of the University of Patras (Greece) with a Diploma in 2014 and a MSc degree in 2017. Her master thesis was on the experimental investigation and methods development for calcium carbonate precipitation and crystal growth in porous media. Then, she moved to IBS (Institute of Structural Biology, Grenoble, France) for a PhD in Biophysics from UGA (University of Grenoble Alps), where she worked on developing microfluidic chips for on-chip dialysis crystallization of membrane proteins and in situ X-ray diffraction experiments. Moreover, she designed and developed a platform for automated control of the on-chip crystallization towards a rational optimization of protein crystallization and the study of phase diagrams. The PhD project was part of the MSCA ITN network named RAMP (Rationalizing Membrane Protein crystallization).

Sofia joined Diamond Light Source in March 2022 as a postdoc on the I24 beamline working on developing methods and instrumentation for serial crystallography at synchrotron (SSX) and XFEL (SFX) sources, with a focus on the use of online UV-vis spectroscopy on microcrystals, anaerobic serial data collection and ‘on-demand’ photo-induced initiation of reactions using photocages. The overall project named ‘Breaking the Cage’ is a collaboration between Diamond and the University of Essex and addresses time-resolved crystallography using fixed targets at synchrotrons and XFELs.

I work in collaboration with groups from the University of Essex and the University of Southampton as part of my current research, as well as, with scientists from other MX beamlines and the XFEL hub at Diamond.

A list of my publications can be found below.

1. Crystallization of Proteins on Chip by Microdialysis for In Situ X-ray Diffraction Studies

Sofia Jaho, Niels Junius, Franck Borel, Yoann Sallaz-Damaz, Jean-Baptiste Salmon, Monika Budayova-Spano

JoVE, 2021, 170, e61660, https://dx.doi.org/10.3791/61660

2. A microfluidic device for both on-chip dialysis protein crystallization and in situ X-ray diffraction

Niels Junius, Sofia Jaho, Yoann Sallaz-Damaz, Franck Borel, Jean-Baptiste Salmon, Monika Budayova-Spano

Lab on a Chip 2020, 20 (2), 296–310, https://doi.org/10.1039/C9LC00651F

3. Struvite precipitation and COD reduction in a two-step treatment of olive mill wastewater

Alexis G. Pantziaros, Sofia Jaho, Isidora Karga, Iakovos C. Iakovides, Petros G. Koutsoukos, Christakis A. Paraskeva

J. Chem. Technol. Biotechnol. 2018, 93, 730–735, https://doi.org/10.1002/jctb.5422

4. Precipitation of Calcium Carbonate in Porous Media in the Presence of n-Dodecane

Sofia Jaho, Varvara Sygouni, Stamatia G. Rokidi, John Parthenios, Petros G. Koutsoukos, Christakis A. Paraskeva

Cryst. Growth Des. 2016, 16 (12), 6874–6884, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.cgd.6b01048

5. Experimental Investigation of Calcium Carbonate Precipitation and Crystal Growth in One- and Two-Dimensional Porous Media

Sofia Jaho, Georgia D. Athanasakou, Varvara Sygouni, Maria G. Lioliou, Petros G. Koutsoukos, Christakis A. Paraskeva

Cryst. Growth Des. 2016, 16 (1), 359–370, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.cgd.5b01321