Ioanna is a Royal Society University Research Fellow and Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge. She studied Chemical Engineering with a specialisation in Biotechnology at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. She moved to Cambridge to start her PhD on alternative DNA structures, studied using Atomic Force Microscopy, at the Department of Pharmacology, with Professor Robert Henderson. While working towards her PhD and through a collaboration with Professor Hiroshi Sugiyama at Kyoto University, she was introduced to DNA nanotechnology. In 2018 she moved to the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge as a Research Associate where she developed state-of-the-art correlative atomic force microscopy with super-resolution microscopy platforms, to visualise biological specimens. In 2022 she was appointed as a proleptic Assistant Professor at the Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge.

Her group applies DNA nanotechnology and aptamer technology for targeted drug delivery.

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Ioanna is the Publicity Officer for the British Biophysical Society and the Society's representative to the Biological Physics Group, at the Institute of Physics. She is Secretary to the British Society for Nanomedicine and Committee member for the Royal Microscopical Society AFM & SPM chapter.

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Her teaching interests focus on Mathematical Biology and Mechanisms of Drug Action and Novel Antimicrobials.

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Ioanna is a Fellow at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where she is Director of Studies for Medicine, and teaches second year medics and vets on Mechanisms of Drug Action.

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Ioanna is a founding shareholder and advisory consultant for Sysora Health Limited, a company founded in 2022 and is building on Dr Mela’s work on antimicrobial drug delivery.