Prof. Dr. Darina Naydenova Hristova, DM, PhD graduated at the Medical University "Prof. Dr. Paraskev Stoyanov" – Varna in 2000. Since 2003 she has been a freelance assistant at the Hygiene Department, and in 2005 she was appointed as an assistant and passed through the positions of senior and chief assistant at the Department of Hygiene. She has diploma in а medical specialty “Nutrition and Dietetics" since 2010. She defended a dissertation on "Nutritional behavior, anthropometric indicators, physical activity and physical capacity of young people with normal weight, underweight and overweight". Since 2015 she has been an associate professor at the Medical University – Varna, since 2022 – she has been a professor. She has published 2 monographs and she is a co-author of 1 book and 6 textbooks and 4 teaching materials. Under her initiative 7 years ago was introduced the elective discipline "Current problems of nutrition of the healthy and sick person" for medical and dental students. In 2019 he organized and realized with colleagues from the Department of Hygiene of the Medical University – Varna the first training for the country on "Eating disorders". In 2020 he received training in "Nutrigenomics: Genetic Testing for Personalized Nutrition" and became part of the first certified team in Nutrigenomics in Bulgaria. She is an academic mentor to students under the Student Practices project. She is Deputy Chairman of the "Alumni Club and Friends" at the Medical University – Varna.
Participates in teaching in the following disciplines: "Hygiene and Ecology", "Nutrition and Health", "Nutrition and Dietetics", "Nutrition Hygiene", "Environment, Nutrition and Health", "Pharmaco-medical aspects of nutrition", "Current problems of nutrition of the healthy and sick person" of the students from the specialities "medicine", "dental medicine", "pharmacy", "pharmacist's assistant", "public health inspector", "rehabilitator", "dental technician", medical cosmetologist","health management"," pharmaceutical management"," protection and control of public health”, “rehabilitation and thalassotherapy". She is a lecturer in postgraduate courses.
Scientific supervisor and reviewer of graduates in the Master's programs in health management, public health and health care management. Prof. Naydenova is the supervisor of 7 PhD students in doctoral programs in "Hygiene". She is the Chairman of the state examination committee for the acquisition of the medical specialty "Nutrition and Dietetics".
He has over 60 scientific publications and 50 contributions to congresses and conferences. The main professional and scientific interests are in the field of dietary nutrition in various diseases, eating disorders, nutritional assessment, epigenetics and nutrigenomics.
Scientific publications
Open Access
Editor of the Journal of "Alumni Club and Friends" of the Medical University - Varna.
Bulgarian Society of Nutrition and Dietetics, Bulgarian Medical Union, National Association "Support for Breastfeeding", Bulgarian Society of Public Health, European Association of Public Health – EUPHA, Bulgarian Medical Homeopathic Organization.