Dr Pavlina Drogoudi is currently Research Director at the Department of Deciduous Fruit Trees, Institute of Plant Breeding and Genetic Resources, Hellenic Agricultural Organisation Demeter. She entered the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Agriculture in 1989 and graduated in 1994 after majoring in the field of ‘Horticulture’. She was appointed as agronomist in a research project at the same university, Laboratory of Pomology, between April 1995 and Febr. 1996. Later she was awarded a 3.5 year competitive scholarship from the Greek State Scholarship Foundation to pursue Ph.D. studies and continued her post-graduate studies at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, UK, where she was awarded her Ph.D. and Diploma of Imperial College, University of London, in Jan 2000. She worked as a post-doc employee at the Agricultural Research Centre of Macedonia and Thrace (June 2000 – June 2001). In July 2001 she was offered an appointment as post-doc employee from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, UK and from Oct 2002 she appointed as researcher in her present position. From 2001 until today she was received several appointments as contract Assistant Professor in the University of Thessaly, School of Agricultural Sciences, the Technological Educational Institution of Thessaloniki and the ΤΕΙ of Thessaly.
She participated as a project leader in 11 EU or National funded projects, and as member of research team in other 8 National funded projects. To date, she has been author in 40 papers in referred journals.

Dr Thomas Sotiropoulos is currently a Research Director at the Department of Deciduous Fruit Trees, Institute of Plant Breeding and Genetic Resources, Hellenic Agricultural Organization Demeter.

He received a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece in 1993, a MSc in Plant Breeding and Plant Physiology in 1996 and a PhD from the same University in 1999. During his post graduate studies, he was awarded a 3.5 year competitive scholarship from the Greek State Scholarship Foundation. During 2008 he participated as a short-term scholar in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California in Davis. From 2002 until 2012 he served as a contract Assistant Professor in the Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki and the School of Agriculture of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Δόκιμος ερευνητής με ειδικότητα ‘Φυτοπαθολογία Φυλλοβόλων Δέντρων’ . Εκπόνησε διδακτορική διατριβή στη Γεωπονική Σχολή (Α.Π.Θ) σε συνεργασία με το Ινστιτούτο Αγροβιοτεχνολογίας (ΙNA) / ΕΚΕΤΑ.  Έχει πλούσια μεταδιδακτορική έρευνα στην Ελλάδα και στο εξωτερικό όπως πρόσφατα στο INRA-BIOGER (AgroParis Tech, France). Έχει συμμετάσχει σε αρκετά Ευρωπαϊκά και Ελληνικά ερευνητικά προγράμματα.

Είναι μέλος της Ελληνικής Φυτοπαθολογικής Εταιρείας και της Ελληνικής Επιστημονικής Εταιρείας Γενετικής Βελτίωσης των Φυτών. Έχει δημοσιεύσει 26 επιστημονικές εργασίες σε περιοδικά με κριτές και έχει συμμετάσχει σε 20 επιστημονικά διεθνή και ελληνικά συνέδρια. Από τις δημοσιεύσεις του έχουν προκύψει συνολικά 248 αναφορές σε περιοδικά του SCI & SSCI και ο συνολικός δείκτης βαρύτητας των δημοσιευμένων άρθρων είναι συνολικά 56,421.

Dr George Pantelidis is currently Researcher D’ Director at the Department of Deciduous Fruit Trees, Institute of Plant Breeding and Genetic Resources, Hellenic Agricultural Organisation Demeter. He entered the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Agriculture in 1995 and graduated in 2000 after majoring in the field of ‘Horticulture’. In 2002 he entered the Msc for Horticultural Science of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Agriculture and graduated in 2004.

At the same time he was awarded a 3.5 year competitive scholarship from the Greek State Scholarship Foundation to pursue Ph.D. studies and continued his post-graduate studies at the School of Agriculture of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where he was awarded his Ph.D. of philosophy of the Faculty of the Department of Agriculture of Geotechnical Sciences of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in 2011.

Christos Bazakos obtained his Bachelor degree on Agriculture, in 2005, from the School of Agriculture of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. In the frame of his Master of Science (MSc) studies, Christos’ focused on enriching his knowledge on plant genetics and plant molecular biology and he obtained his MSc degree, in 2007, from the department of Horticultural Genetics and Biotechnology of Mediterranean Agronomic Institute at Chania (M.A.I.Ch), Greece.

Christos Bazakos carried out his PhD thesis at M.A.I.Ch under the supervision of Dr. Panagiotis Kalaitzis and he obtained his PhD degree from the School of Agriculture (Dept. of Plant Sciences) of Aristotle University Thessaloniki (AUTh), Greece (2012). His PhD dissertation is entitled “High-throughput gene expression study on the molecular response of olive tree (Olea europaea) under NaCl stress”.

After the end of his doctoral studies, Christos Bazakos worked as a postdoctoral researcher to the lab of Dr. Olivier Loudet (Institut Jean-Pierre Bourgin, INRA – Versailles, France) from 2012 to 2016. Christos’ project was to apply genome-wide quantitative molecular genetics to both, a very integrative and classical quantitative trait (growth in interaction with the environment) and a molecular trait a priori more directly linked to the source of variation (gene expression under cis-regulation) in both cases studied in interaction with mild drought stress in the model-plant Arabidopsis thaliana.

In 2016, Christos Bazakos moved to Germany to work as a post-doctoral researcher on plant developmental genetics at Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne in the group of Prof. Dr. Miltos Tsiantis., as member of the Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS). His research work uses molecular biology, single-cell expression, genome editing approaches, biological imaging methodologies and genome wide association studies to understand the developmental nature and origin for asexual reproduction in the genus of Cardamine and to study the genetic basis for this phenomenon.

Since July 2018, Christos is an independent researcher in Deciduous Tree Breeding and Genomics, at the Institute of Plant Breeding and Genetic Resources, HAO (Thessaloniki, Greece) and since September 2021 is a guest scientist in Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne in the group of Prof. Dr. Miltos Tsiantis.

+ Research Interests

• Plant Genomics, Transcriptomics, Single-Cell Expression
• High-throughput phenotyping platforms
• Marker-Assisted-Selection (MAS) and Genome-Wide-Association-Studies (GWAS)
• Genetic engineering and Genome editing (CRISPR-Cas9)
• DNA fingerprinting

+ Selected Publications (h-index: 13; citations: 694; 31 Peer Review Publications)

• Bazakos, K.G. Alexiou, et al., (2023). Whole genome scanning of a Mediterranean basin hotspot collection provide new insights into olive tree biodiversity and biology. Plant Journal, https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.16270.
• Skodra, M. Michailidis, …, C. Bazakos, A. Molassiotis (2022) Disclosing the molecular basis of salinity priming in olive trees using proteogenomic model discovery. Plant Physiology, 191(3):1913-1933.
• Xanthopoulou, T. Moysiadis, Bazakos, et al., (2021). The perennial fruit tree proteogenomics atlas: a spatial map of the sweet cherry proteome and transcriptome. Plant Journal, 109(5):1319-1336.
• Xanthopoulou, M. Manioudaki, Bazakos, et al., (2020). Whole genome re-sequencing of sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) yields insights into genomic diversity of a fruit species. Horticulture Research, 7:1-14.
• Bazakos, M. Hanemian, et al., (2017). New Strategies and Tools in Quantitative Genetics: How to Go from the Phenotype to the Genotype. Annual Review of Plant Biology, 68, DOI: 10.1146/annurev-arplant-042916-040820.

He is currently an employee at the Department of Deciduous Fruit Trees, Institute of Plant Breeding and Genetic Resources, Hellenic Agricultural Organization Demeter.
His scientific interests include the study and evaluation of local and foreign genotypes of stone fruit with emphasis on cherry trees. More specific, he studies the training systems of trees, the new cultivation techniques, the improvement of tree yield and fruit quality, the study of phonological tree stages, the laboratory analysis of fruit quality, the evaluation of the resistance of cherry cultivars in pests, the tree diseases and various environmental stresses, the plant protection against pests and diseases, the tree propagation, the hybridization for the production of new cultivars, the data evaluation in PC etc.

He participated since 1996, as a member of the research team in all the scientific research projects of his Institution, as well as in various research committees of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food such as the establishment of standards for the Integrated Plant Protection Guidelines of cherry, apricot and plum trees.

To date, he has been author/co-author of three books (the one in English), of one chapter in one book (in English), of three educational manuals for growers, of 15 papers in foreign journals (13 of them referred), of 10 articles in Hellenic Conferences, of 8 articles in International Conferences, of 37 articles in national journals, and tenths of articles in newspapers and websites.