Maria obtained her BSc in Psychology from the University of Roehampton in 2009, and her  MSc in Psychiatric Research Methods at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, KCL in 2010. 

Maria worked as a researcher at the IoP between 2010 and 2021, where she also obtained her PhD in Clinical Neuroscience, and taught on the MSc Clinical Neurodevelopmental Sciences. 

She has a strong background in Neurodiversity, Special Educational Needs and Mentoring across a diverse student population.

Maria's main research interests are Neurodevelopment disorders and genetic deletions/duplications.

Currently Maria's focus is on mental health and wellbeing in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) in educational settings, as well as facilitators and barriers to mental helth and wellbeing support more generally in this population. She is a champion for raising awareness for individuals with 22q11.2DS and have contributed significantly to this field in the UK.

Maria is also interested in the significate rates of ASD in the 22q11.2DS population. To date, she has contributed significantly to a better understanding of ASD phenotype in this population, especially on a neuroanatomical level. She hopes that her work will ultimately help toward more targeted interventions and treatments for both this population and populations of other genetic disorders. 

Maria is part of large international consortiums for 22q11.2DS research

The ENIGMA-22q working group which aims to carry out meta-analyses of esisting MRi & DTI data sets - over 500 cases and comparable healthy individuals.
http://enigma.ini.usc.edu/ongoing/enigma-22q-working-group/

The International 22q.2 Brain Bhaviour Consortium
http://www.22q11-ibbc.org/about/