Molecular Ecology Laboratory

The Laboratory of Molecular Ecology, within the Department of Science and Technology at the International Hellenic University, was founded with the primary objective of conducting research and facilitating teaching activities in the fields of Molecular Ecology, Molecular Biology, and Biotechnology (as published in the Government Gazette: issue B’ 3705/04.10.2019). The laboratory is under the direction of Spiros Papakostas, Assistant Professor in the Department of Science and Technology. The laboratory is actively involved in: A. Teaching Activities: The laboratory supports the English-speaking MSc program “Applied Bioinformatics”. Students receive training in basic molecular techniques, such as DNA extraction, and also have access to state-of-the-art Next Generation Sequencing equipment (MinION, ONT). B. Thesis Research: Several MSc students conduct their theses at the laboratory, focusing on topics related to Microbial and Molecular Ecology. C. Research Projects: The laboratory actively participates in European and National projects, most notably the Biodiversity Genomics Europe (BGE, HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-01-01, duration: 48 months; 2022-2026), aimed at cataloguing and studying European biodiversity, and the eDNAqua-plan (HORIZON-MISS-2022-OCEAN-01-09, duration: 36 months; 2023-2026), with the goal of producing DNA barcoding libraries in aquatic environments. D. Collaborations: The laboratory maintains numerous collaborations with research and academic institutes (e.g., ELGO-Dimitra, CERTH), research groups, and the private sector (e.g., EcoDevelopment).