Overview
Our team was created in November with the aim of participating in the iGEM Competition. From the first steps of brainstorming, we decided that we want to work hard to find a solution to something that is bothering people all over the world. So by chance one day we read the statistics published by the World Health Organization and saw how many people died in the previous year from lung cancer. Looking for the causes of mortality, we found that there are no available tools for early diagnosis, resulting in the tumor being detected in the final stages when it is already too late. This is how the journey of Project DIAS began. We are all working hard to complete our goals and evolve our project. We are truly grateful for all the help we were offered during this difficult year. We would especially like to thank our PI, Dr. Vizirianakis Ioannis, for his guidance and motivation, our Advisors and our Instructor, as well as all the people who support and help us to reach one step closer to DIAS.
Mr. Giannopoulos - Dimitriou Alexandros
Alexandros is our wet lab leader. He is a pharmacist and now he is completing his Master of Science in Precision Medicine, AUTh. He came up with the initial project idea based on the CRISPR/cas13a system as a diagnostic technology. He is a synthetic biology enthusiast and has a great passion for research. He designed the experimental pipeline and contributed to most of the experiments playing a vital role in the proof of concept and the molecular and synthetic biology part of the project. He took part in microfluidic device testing and had an essential role in troubleshooting and he had an important role in the Graphic Design part of the project. Furthermore, he had a fundamental contribution in fundraising as he was many times one of the main speakers at the project presentations to our potential sponsors while he participated in Human Practices, Education and Communication by organizing some meetings including the University of Nicosia.
Mrs. Kosmidou Maria
Maria is our Human Practices leader. She is a Pharmacist and she has started her Master of Science in Business Administration, AUTh. Science communication and Bioeconomics are her trump cards. As a leader of Human Practices Maria had the leading role in organizing meetings with specialists including Research and Diagnostic centers, such as RGCC, LABnet, Platon Diagnosis as well as with doctors in order to take feedback and improve our project. She also had an active role in the Education and Communication activities, such as the meeting with Anatolia College and the webinar “Synthetic Biology Approaches in Cancer Translational Research”. Furthermore, Maria had a vital role in fundraising as she contacted and took part in the presentation of our project to many potential sponsors. Finally, she was responsible for the financial planning and the Business development of the project.
Mr. Trygoniaris Dimitrios
Dimitris is our Dry Lab Leader. He is the Physicist of our team and he has started his Master of Science in Precision Medicine, AUTh. Dimitris has a blast with modeling and 3D printing. As a leader of the Dry Lab he was responsible for the modeling part of the project. More specifically, he designed the appropriate guide RNAs that detect the selected biomarkers. Furthermore, he proceeded in the design and analysis of the microfluidic platform which was used for the droplet generation. Finally, he applied mathematical algorithms to design the reaction kinetics model. Dimitris as a member of the Human Practices team has participated in many of the meetings with specialists while he had an important role in the Graphic Design part of the project.
Mrs. Aikaterini Saiti
Aikaterini is a key member of both Wet and Dry Lab. She is a Pharmacist and she is now completing her Master of Science in Precision Medicine, AUTh. Balancing both sectors harmonically she managed to be the calming force of the team. She had a major role in the project development and the experimental design. She performed the bioinformatic analysis for the detection of the microRNA biomarkers and the plasmid design in Snapgene. She had an essential role in most of the experiments and mainly in the molecular and synthetic biology section while she successfully prepared the microfluidic chip experiment. She played a key role in troubleshooting and in the Graphic Design and Video Design part of the project. Finally, Aikaterini was also a member of the Human Practices team and took part in many presentations in order to promote our projects to specialists.
Mrs. Maria Konstantinidou
Maria is a Wet Lab member. She is a Pharmacist and she is now completing her Master of Science in Industrial Pharmacy, AUTh. She has passion for proteins and she is our master of Western blot Technique. Thus, Maria had the leading role in the protein production and purification. She worked hard and played a major role in troubleshooting, improving the protein production protocols. She has also participated in Human Practices and Communication being part of the most meetings with the specialists while contributing to events such as 86th Thessaloniki International Fair.
Mrs. Gouliou Ioanna
Gouliou Ioanna is a Wet Lab member. She is a Pharmacist and she is now completing her Master of Science in Precision Medicine, AUTh. She is a lab enthusiast and the positive note of our team. She contributed to most of the molecular and synthetic biology experiments and she played a crucial role in the protein production part of the project. She had an important role in the troubleshooting field. She had a leading role in the results filing, description and analysis and the protocol recording. Furthermore, she had an essential role in fundraising issues as she interacted with many potential sponsors. Finally she actively participated in Human Practices, Education and Communication presenting our project to many entities, diagnostic centers and schools.
Mrs. Papadimitriou-Tsantarliotou Aliki
Aliki is a member of Wet Lab. She is a Biologist and she is a Ph.D. Candidate in Molecular and Systematic Pharmacology and Pharmacogenomics, AUTh. She has a blast with molecular biology. Thus, she mainly participated in the molecular part of the project. She contributed to most of the experiments in the molecular and synthetic biology experiments of the project. She was an active member of the Human Practices team presenting our project to many entities while she played an essential role in the collaboration field with other igem teams.
Mr. Kardamiliotis Konstantinos
Konstantinos is a member of Human Practices. He is a Biologist and he is now completing his Master of Science in Industrial Pharmacy, AUTh. He had an active role in presenting our project and he organized our bioinformatic webinar called “One Step Closer to Gold”. He also represented our team at the 86th Thessaloniki International Fair.
Mrs. Chatzitaki Aikaterini - Theodora
Aikaterini is a Ph.D. Candidate in Pharmaceutical Technology, School of Pharmacy, AUTh. She had a major contribution to the microfluidic chip design and the application of the 3D printing technique. She attended our trials from the beginning since the final successful result and she gave us great advice in order to improve our device.
Mrs. Monou Paraskevi - Kyriaki
Paraskevi- Kyriaki is a Ph. D. Candidate in Pharmaceutical Technology, School of Pharmacy, AUTh. Together with Aikaterini, Paraskevi spent a lot of time discussing with us about our project idea and had a major role in troubleshooting mainly for problems that came up related with the functionality of the microfluidic chip.
Mr. Eleftherios Daskalakis
Eleftherios is a software developer at BETA CAE Systems S.A. His participation in our project was major since he assumed our wiki design and development.
Mr.Damalas Stamatios
Stamatios is a Synthetic Biologist, Ph. D. Candidate at Wageningen UR, Netherlands. Stamatios had a vital role in our project from day one. More specifically, he guided our team in many aspects of the competition but mainly on the experimental part. He proposed some modifications to the initial experimental pipeline in order to improve our project, especially in the synthetic biology part. He is responsible for our Cloning Strategy. His interference was crucial for the successful completion of our project.
Dr. Ioannis Vizirianakis is an Associate Professor of Molecular Pharmacology and Pharmacogenomics at the School of Pharmacy, AUTh and our Primary Principal Investigator. He is the “quiet strength” of our team and supports us in every crazy idea no matter how difficult it is to achieve. He allowed us to work in his lab and offered us the necessary equipment and reagents. He also contributed to our lab work by suggesting us literature and troubleshooting. His knowledge about the management of the RNA molecule was decisive for the development of the project. He helped us with our Human Practices by getting in touch with many specialists and stakeholders related to our project, including Diagnostic Centers, Pharmaceutical Companies and Doctors.Also, he helped us with Science Communication since he was a speaker at the seminar we organized about "Synthetic Biology Approaches in Cancer Translational Research" and he supported us in all the conferences our team participated in by coordinating the speeches and solving questions from the audience. His help was also decisive in the Education part as he put us in contact with High School teachers and the Minister of Education so that they could be informed about the iGEM competition. Finally, he helped us with our fundraising, through communication with many possible sponsors.
Especially, we would like to thank:
Dr. Fatouros Dimitrios, Professor of Pharmaceutical Technology, School of Pharmacy at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki for his advice and information about microemulsions, microfluidic chips and his support for the 3D-bioprinting techniques.
Dr. Papadopoulou Lefkothea, Professor of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki for his advice about cloning and protein production.
Dr. Panagiotidis Christos, Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology, School of Pharmacy at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki for access to his lab equipment.
Dr. Kalogianni Despoina, Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Patras and Primary PI of Patras Medicine 2022 team for her advice on our project.
Dr. Kallergi Galatea, Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Patras and Secondary PI of Patras Medicine 2022 team for her advice on our project.
Mr. Apostolou Panagiotis, Molecular Biologist and Supervisor at the Lab Facilities of RGCC Group in Greece for his help for cloning and PCR techniques and for troubleshooting.
Mrs. Mourati Sofia, Molecular Biologist at RGCC Group for her advice and help with the bacterial cultures and protein production.
Mr. Katsimantas Alexandros, Employee of RGCC Group in Greece, for his assistance in ordering laboratory consumables.
We would like to thank:
Dr. Malousi Antigoni, Specialized Teaching Staff, Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, AUTH for her advice and guidance regarding the bioinformatic and data analysis and research for suitable miRNA biomarkers and validation of them.
Mr. Avgeros Chrysostomos, PhD Candidate in Precision Medicine, School of Medicine AUTh for his support of the differential analysis of several samples, which was performed with the help of the R programming language and the correlation of miRNA with lung cancer.
Especially, we would like to thank:
Dr. Papaioannou Nikos, Rector of AUTh and Dr. Stylianidis Efstratios for freely access to the facilities of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and for their feedback, which validated the impact of our diagnostic tool to the public.
Mrs. Karkali Christina, President of PLATON DIAGNOSIS S.A., Dr. Athanasoula Anastasia, Biopathologist and Mr. Chalkiopoulos Konstantinos, Project Manager for the presentation of the characteristics like methodology and cost, which should have a diagnostic tool in order to easily used it from the diagnostic centers for the annual check-up of the public.
Dr. Chatzopoulou Fani, Biologist at Labnet, for discussing with us the implementation of new molecular diagnostic methods in laboratories and the desired characteristics of these tools.
Dr. Spyratos Dionysios, Pulmonologist at the General Hospital of Thessaloniki “G. Papanikolaou” and Associate Professor of Pulmonology, AUTh, for giving us new perspectives on how to increase the specificity and sensitivity of our project.
Dr. Vachtsevanos Konstantinos, MD, DDS, PhD, Professor, and Head of Oral Surgical Resident at the General Hospital of Thessaloniki “G. Papanikolaou” for his advice about the presentation of our diagnostic tool to the doctors, so that they recommend it to their patients, in the future.
Dr. Iakovidou Chrysoula - Maria, Md, MSc(c) in General Surgery for the discussion about the future steps to prove the functionality, accuracy and specificity of our tool in the analysis of blood samples.
Dr. Papasotiriou Ioannis, an Oncologist and Founder of RGCC Group, who confirmed that late diagnosis is the main cause of cancer mortality and that a cost-effective blood diagnostic test will can be added to the annual screening in order to solve this problem.
Mr. Stamatiou George, Business Development Director of KARABINIS MEDICAL S.A, Mrs. Kalogeropoulou Maria, Sr Consultant HTA - Consulting & Services at iQVIA and Mr. Vakalopoulos George, Corporate Communication Associate at ELPEN Pharmaceutical S.A, who confirmed that the diagnostic tool we propose can be easily produced in the industries and they informed us that there is a demand for molecular diagnostics about cancer.
Mrs. Nikokavoura Aspasia, Chemist and Employee of the Health Material Evaluation Department of the National Organization for Medicines for discussing with us the procedures and challenges of the development and distribution of a diagnostic tool.
The Greek Government and especially, President of the Hellenic Republic, Mrs. Katerina Sakellaropoulou, the Minister of Education, Mrs. Kerameus Niki, the Deputy Minister of Education Mr. Syrigos Aggelos and Mr. Alexis Tsipras, Member of Parliament for the confirmation of the impact of our diagnostic tool DIAS.
Especially, we would like to thank:
Mrs. Spetsioti Nancy, Director, Mr. Kostopoulos Alexandros, Assistant Director, Mr. Gioubasis Sakis, Photographer, Mr. Lazaridis Simos, Sound Engineer and Mr. Dalezios Nikos and ERT2 Channel about the production of the TV Documentary of our team.
Mrs. Christoforidou Sofia, Journalist at ERT3 Channel for the interview of our team.
Aristotle team of Pharmacy (ATP) for the invitation to participate in the 4th Greek Scientific Conference of Pharmacy Students at Thessaloniki.
Pharmacy Association in Thessaloniki and Mr. Evgenidis Dionysios, President ot the Pharmacy Association in Thessaloniki for the invitation to participate in the 8th Greek Conference of applied Pharmaceuticals.
Pharmacy Association in Kavala for the invitation to participate in their Conference.
Cancer Prevention Research Group in Greece and Mr. Athanasiou Efstratios the President of CPRG Group for the organization of the Webinar for Lung Cancer in which participated our team.
Mr. Katsouras Dimitrios, Responsible for the availability of the premises of the KEDEA Conference Hall for access in order to organize our seminar about Synthetic Biology.
Dr. Sarigiannis Ioannis, Assistant Professor at the Department of Health at the University of Nicosia, who gave us the opportunity to inform the students of the University of Nicosia about iGEM Competition.
Mrs. Garifalaki Marilena, Professor at Metropolitan College, who gave us the opportunity to inform the students of Metropolitan College about iGEM Competition.
Dr. Sotiriou Diamantis, Biologist and Dr. Koliakou Iro, Physicist, Professors at Anatolia College who gave us the opportunity to inform the students of Anatolia College about iGEM Competition.
We would like to thank:
Mrs. Louizou Eleni, Director of the Press Office of AUTH, for organizing many of our interviews and for writing our official Press release of our team and for promoting many of our Education and Communication activities.
Mrs. Alopoudi Foteini, PR manager at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki for the organization of our meeting with the President of the Greek Republic and for her help in the participation of our team in the Thessaloniki International Fair and BEYOND EXPO 2022.
Mrs. Bouka Nikoleta, Responsible for Public Relations at the Pharmacy Association of Thessaloniki for the publication of our official Press release at many sites.
Mrs. Papadopoulou Dimitra, Architect at TETRAGON S.A. for the design and configuration of our stand in the Thessaloniki International Fair.
Mr. Kostopoulos Dimitrios, Photographer for our official Photoshooting.
Mr. Tsouflidis Yiannis, Photographer of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, for our photos at the 86th Thessaloniki International Fair.
Especially, we would like to thank:
Technology Transfer Office of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Mrs. Eri Toka for her advice for filing our provisional patent.
Mr. Kourtesis Dimitrios, Technology Enterpreneur and Co-Founder of Ideas Forward, who helped us with our fundraising, through communication with many possible investors.
Mr. Tsoniotis Nikolaos, Co-Founder of Ideas Forward, for his support in our business development and the preparation of our pitch deck presentation.
Mr. Xidakis Costas, Head of Sales at EnzyQuest S.A. for his help for the market analysis and his information about biotechnological products.
Mr. Chatigiannis Manolis, Technology Transfer Consultant at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Alexander Innovation Zone for the seminar “Co-working”, which helped our team with the business analysis of our project.
Patras Medicine 2022 team was our partners and fellow travelers to our journey into the world of Synthetic Biology. We would like to thank them because we cooperated in all the parts of iGEM Competition. Especially, regarding the Dry Lab we exchanged ideas and knowledge for the modeling of our projects, we troubleshoot the experiments of Wet Lab and we organized together seminars, webinars and activities on social media about science communication and education. Also, we contacted together stakeholders since both teams created diagnostic tools about lung cancer and we presented our project to the public at Thessaloniki International Fair. We had meetings every Thursday and in this way achieve to reach DIAS with SYMPNOIA, which means cooperation.
Especially, we would like to thank:
Tourna Tatiana, owner of T-shop Marketing Services S.A. and Arampatzi Despoina, for the designing of our logo, our banner, and our wonderful blouses.
Gallou Foteini, Project Manager at T-Shop Marketing Group for the production and editing of our Promotion Video.
Christoforidis Konstantinos, Graphic Designer for the creation of the animation part of our promotional video.
We would like to thank our supporters:
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) for paying our team's registration to the iGEM training and providing us with workshops and halls for our team's Meetings.
E.L.K.E. (Eidikos Logariasmos Kondylion Ereunas), the body of our University that manages financial transactions for their assistance in accepting sponsorships and managing our suppliers.
Research Genetic Cancer Center (RGCC Group), our gold sponsor for offering us lab facilities, lab equipment, reagents, and finally for marketing and covering all the expenses of our team's trip to Paris.
DEMO Pharmaceutical Industry A.B.E.E. for the financial support as a silver sponsor.
ELPEN Pharmaceutical S.A. for the financial support as a silver sponsor.
Uni-Pharma S.A. Pharmaceutical Laboratories for the financial support as a silver sponsor.
Greek Pharmacy Association for the financial support as a silver sponsor.
ELTA 90 MGR for the material sponsorship of chemical reagents.
LabNET Medical S.A. for the financial support and lab equipment.
BIOLINE Scientific S.A. for the supply of laboratory consumables.
T-Shop for marketing services.