University of Thessaly
About the Institution
University of Thessaly (UTH) was founded in 1984. UTH is a prominent institution of Higher Education aiming to promote scientific knowledge through teaching and research, and to contribute to the cultural and economic development of the local community, and the society at large. It promotes scientific and academic excellence in all fields of expertise and rewards outstanding individual performances, establishing new scientific research units and fostering an environment that supports innovative actions.
Today, University of Thessaly, with 37 Departments and 8 schools, is the third biggest University in Greece, with its own identity and with a prominent position in our national educational system. University of Thessaly provides 105 undergraduate and postgraduate programs, and extra-curricular modules in specific research and business fields. It has more than 42.000 undergraduate students, about 4300 postgraduate students and about 1500 PhD students. It also has 1000 members of teaching and research staff and 450 members of administrative personnel. It is known for its excellent research performance and outstanding scientific achievements, in accordance with the international standards. As part of its future goals, University of Thessaly intends to strengthen its cooperation’s abroad, increase its human resources, upgrade and utilize existing human resources, attract young scientists and encourage research through the creation of modern research structures, increase infrastructure and utilize its assets and funds from the EU with the research programmes Horizon 2020, RFSR, FP6, FP7, Erasmus+, INTERREG, and LIFE.
University of Thessaly and especially the Department of Biochemistry & Biotechnology, is the coordinator of the OMIC-Engine Research Infrastructure.
Research Interests
The basic research of the University of Thessaly Hub and the Department of Biochemistry & Biotechnology is focused on the analysis of biological phenomena and mechanisms at the molecular level by exploiting the use of Molecular Biology & Biotechnology techniques. The research is applied on insects, plants, fish and microbes. In parallel, Synthetic Biology and Systems Biology methods are being applied for the development of innovative tools aiming to produce high-value products at the Agro-food sector.
Infrastructure
Confocal Microscopy
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Laser Scanning microscope, LSM 800 ZEISS, equipped with 4 laser 405, 488, 561, 640, two PMT detectors and one Airy scan detector with three mode of actions (Confocal mode, Virtual Pinhole mode, Super Resolution mode).
Ultracentrifuge
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Bench Top Ultracentrifuge Beckman Coulter with max speed of up to 150000 rpm with a Fixed Angel rotor (8 x 8 mL) and a Near Vertical rotor (8 x 3.9 mL) for separation of subcellular particles, separation of virus particles, pelleting RNA through a CsCl gradient, Isopycnic separation of plasmid DNA, Stable Isotope Probing applications.
PCR Robot System
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Liquid handling unit for the preparation of reactions in 96 and 384-well plates for high-throughput diagnostic PCR /q-PCR and high throughput amplicon sequencing and metagenomic libraries screening.
Collaborating Research Laboratories
Genomics, Comparative & Evolutionary Biology Laboratory
Associate Professor K. Moutou
Plant & Environmental Biotechnology Laboratory
Structural & Functional Biochemistry Laboratory
Professor D. Leonidas ddleonidas@bio.uth.gr
Molecular Biology & Genomics Laboratory
Professor K. Mathiopoulos kmathiop@bio.uth.gr