Vassya Bankova obtained her PhD in Natural Product Chemistry at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia. She has worked as a guest-researcher at the Ruhr University – Bochum, the University of Saarland, Saarbruecken, the Bandeirante University, Sao Paulo, and the Institute of Molecules of Biological Interest, Naples. In 2004 she became full professor at the Institute of Organic Chemistry with Centre of Phytochemistry.
Her research interests are directed towards search for new biologically active compounds from unexplored biological subjects (endemic plants, mushrooms, bee products); development of modern reliable methods of qualitative and quantitative analysis of the active components in complex extracts of natural products. Her special interest is devoted to the bee product propolis (bee glue): its chemistry, plant origin, biological activity, health-promoting potential, analysis, standardization. She and her group have been studying propolis for over 30 years, have made major contributions to the current knowledge of propolis. Her total number of publications is over 200, she has an h-index of 50. She is a member of the International Honey Commission, for the International Propolis Research Group, and founding member of the Bulgarian Phytochemical Society. She is also a part-time lecturer at the University of Sofia, a Senior Editorial Board Member of BMC Chemistry, and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of Natural Product Communications. She is a corresponding member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (2014) and a member of Academia Europaea (2021).