ENvironmental Biotechnology Laboratory
Our Team
Professor Emmanouil Flemetakis
Emmanouil Flemetakis, Ph.D., is Professor of Biochemistry and serves as the Vice-Rector of the Agricultural University of Athens (AUA) and is the head of the Environmental Biotechnology Laboratory within the Department of Biotechnology of AUA. His research encompasses cutting-edge molecular biology, biochemical, and biotechnology methodologies and their applications. This includes expertise in genomic, metagenomic, transcriptomic, and metabolomic platforms, as well as proficiency in protein-protein interaction techniques and genetic transformation technologies for plants and microbes. In recent years, Flemetakis's group has focused on elucidating the genetic, molecular, and biochemical mechanisms that govern the interaction between organisms and their biotic and abiotic environments. They are actively involved in developing environmentally sustainable biotechnological processes and applications. Their work leverages bacteriophages, marine and freshwater microalgae, and other beneficial microorganisms to enhance the resilience and productivity of plants and animals in response to climate change challenges. These research efforts have resulted in the co-authorship of more than 110 research papers.
Assistant Professor Dimitrios Skliros
Dimitrios G. Skliros, Ph.D., holds a Ph. D. degree in Biotechnology from the School of Applied Biology and Biotechnology, at the Agricultural University of Athens, Greece. He is newly elected as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biotechnology at the Agricultural University of Athens, Greece. He is the Young Ambassador of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) in Greece for 2024-2026 and is a regular member of the International Society of Viruses of Microorganisms. His scholarly pursuits are chiefly concentrated on Environmental Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, with a particular focus on the interactions of viruses of microbes with their hosts. His academic engagement with bacteriophage biology commenced in 2013 when starting his doctoral studies.
Dr. Rodica Efrose
Rodica Efrose, PH.D, is a Senior Research Associate in the Environmental Biotechnology Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, Agricultural University of Athens. She holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iasi (TUIASI), Romania, completed through a co-supervision program between TUIASI and the Agricultural University of Athens (AUA), Greece, as a Marie Curie Fellow (2004). After completing her PhD and postdoctoral studies in Greece, she joined the research teams at the University of Life Sciences Iasi, and the Institute of Biological Research Iasi, where she has been a Senior Researcher since 2013. Since 2022, she has also been a research collaborator at the REXDAN Research Center, UDJG. Her main research interests include biodiversity studies and molecular taxonomic identification of plants and bacteria; the assessment of physiological and molecular traits in Rhizobium-legume interactions; and genomic and biochemical characterization of plant responses to abiotic stresses using advanced -omics technologies. More recently, she has expanded her research to environmental studies, particularly in aquatic environments, applying molecular tools to assess biodiversity species conservation, and the effects of pollution, as well as to evaluate microbial community structure and dynamics as indicators of environmental health. She has led or contributed to over 25 national and international projects, authored 41 peer-reviewed articles (h-index 12, Scopus), presented at more than 80 conferences, and she is a reviewer for national research projects and scientific journals.
Dr. Aikaterini Kolleti
Aikaterini Koletti, Ph.D., is a dedicated researcher with a strong academic foundation, holding a BSc in Biology, an MSc in Microbial Biotechnology, and a PhD in Biotechnology. With over five years of experience at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the Agricultural University of Athens, she has specialized in microalgae research, contributing to six published scientific papers. Proficient in a range of molecular techniques, including PCR, RT-PCR, molecular taxonomy, and omics approaches such as RNAseq and GS-MS, she also has expertise in microalgal cultivation at the laboratory scale. Beyond research, she has mentored undergraduate students in their theses and, for the past year, has taken on administrative responsibilities as the AUA representative at the European University EU-Conexus, managing the EU-Conexus Enables program.
MSc Maria-Eleftheria Zografaki
Maria-Eleftheria Zografaki is a PhD candidate in the Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology at the Department of Biotechnology, Agricultural University of Athens (2018–2025). She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology from the same department (2009–2015) and a Master’s degree from the Department of Pharmacy at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (2015–2017), where she completed a thesis on the “Isolation, development, production, and analysis of natural bioactive products.” She has participated in two Greek-funded programs (FRUALGAE, PRIMA-2019; Operational Program Fisheries and Maritime 2014–2020, MIS 5010684), one European program (RADIANT, Horizon2020), and several privately funded projects. Maria-Eleftheria has published 11 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and delivered over 20 poster and oral presentations at both Greek and international scientific conferences. Her research interests focus on the study, production, and biochemical characterization of natural and microalgae-derived extracts for biotechnological applications, particularly using in vitro methods to assess bioactivity, antimicrobial properties and environmental management potential. Her technical expertise includes transcriptomics and metabolomics analyses, with hands-on experience in nucleic acid isolation, primer design, cDNA library construction, real-time qPCR and sequencing.
MSc Polyxeni Papazoglou
Polyxeni Papazoglou is a PhD student in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the Department of Biotechnology, Agricultural University of Athens, Greece. She has authored two peer-reviewed publications and participated in five academic conferences. She has 2 peer-reviewed publications and 11 participations in conferences. She has worked as a researcher in a private research project called “Fish from Greece” for 6 months involving analysis of next-generation sequencing data and microbiology techniques. Currently, she is working in an ELIDEK project named ‘T-Rep: Time-Resolved Phageomics: Exploring the potential of phage therapy in allergy and asthma’ focusing on bacteriophage isolation for human pathogens and microbial and molecular characterization of their relations. Her expertise includes microbial biotechnology, fundamental microbiological techniques, as well as advanced skills in bacteriophage isolation, characterization, and manipulation and next generation sequencing technologies.
MSc Emmanouil Zoanos
Emmanouil Zoanos is a PhD student at the Agricultural University of Athens, Greece, focusing on symbiotic plant-microbial interactions and abiotic stress responses. He has extensive research experience through several internships, including field sampling, isolation, characterization andsequencing of marine bacteria at the Centro de Ciencias do Mar in Portugal. Emmanouil is currently involved in the ELIDEK-funded research project "EICONA" ("Synergetic beneficial microbial consortia for improving plant productivity and adaptation and challenging environments") and the HORIZON EUROPE research project "ProCleanLakes" ("Integrated emerging approaches for joint protection and restoration of Natural Lakes in the spirit of European life heritage support"). He has co-authored and presented at conferences, including the EBE18 , IULS Congress , SSFB , and the EU-CONEXUS EENVIRO Research Conference. His expertise encompasses molecular biology, microbiology, genomic and metagenomic analysis and the study of bacterial-plant host interactions.
MSc Qiuling Hui
Hui Qiuling is a PhD student studying at Southwest University of China and a visiting PhD student at the Agricultural University of Athens. She holds a Bachelor degree from South China Agricultural University and a Master degree from Southwest University. Among them, her master's thesis focused on the functional study of coumarin and its related genes in iron deficiency tolerance in citrus. The research during her PhD was about the physiological and molecular mechanisms of rhizobium-mycorrhizal fungus-legume tripartite symbiosis in response to salt stress.
BSc Elena Lekakou
Elena Lekakou is a PhD student in the Lab of Environmental Biotechnology, at the Department of Biotechnology, Agricultural University of Athens, with research interests focused on biotechnology and its applications. She is a graduate of the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Thessaly, where her thesis was titled: "Study of antimicrobial activity of Janthinobacterium lividum and two wild-type strains of Pseudomonas sp. and Bacillus sp. in vitro and in food models". Elena is a member of the research team working on the T-ReP (Time-Resolving Phageomics), funded by EL.ID.E.K., which explores the potential of phage therapy in allergy and asthma.She completed an internship at Misión Biológica de Galicia, CSIC, in Spain, where she focused on the genetic analysis of Phaseolus species, specializing in DNA isolation and quality assessment, as well as studying molecular polymorphisms through PCR. Her second internship was at the Hellenic Food Authority (EFET), where she assessed dietary exposure and risk characterization of the Greek population regarding perfluorinated alkylated substances (PFAS) through food consumption, applying methodologies in nutritional epidemiology and data analysis. She has also completed a range of certification-oriented training programs in biotechnology, nutrition, cosmetics, data analysis and entrepreneurship.
BSc Magda Tseperka
Magda Tseperka is a Master's student in the Systems Biology master's program at the Department of Biotechnology, Agricultural University of Athens, Greece. She is conducting her thesis at the Molecular Biology Laboratory, focusing on bacterial resistance mechanisms to bacteriophages and antibiotics. She has participated in five conferences. She is currently involved in an ELIDEK project titled "T-Rep: Time-Resolved Phageomics: Exploring the Potential of Phage Therapy in Allergy and Asthma." Her work focuses on isolating bacteriophages that target human pathogens and characterizing their interactions through microbial and molecular analysis. Her laboratory experience encompasses microbiological and molecular techniques, with a particular emphasis on the isolation, characterization, and specialized management of bacteria and bacteriophages.