Applied Sciences Webinar | Microbiome Innovations for Functional and Sustainable Food Systems
Welcome from the Chair
8th Applied Sciences Webinar
Microbiome Innovations for Functional and Sustainable Food Systems
The development of sustainable agri-food systems for innovative and safe microbiome products, services, and bioprocesses is one of the key priorities within the European frames of the Circular Economy and the Green Deal. The development of novel foods, enriched with health-promoting microorganisms and compounds obtained via biotechnological routes to potentially enhance functional activities at a preventive, but also at a therapeutic level is in the heart of food innovation. Notably, this constitutes one of the main scientific axes of FOODBIOMES, a project that focuses on the development of a National Research Infrastructure that explores applications of microbiome in food systems. In this project, a number of in vitro and in vivo approaches, as well as clinical trials are designed to study, analyze and establish the beneficial properties of novel microbial strains and biotechnology products that are subsequently introduced into a series of food components and/or foods. Moreover, as the valorization of agro-industrial residues and food wastes confers an issue of vital importance for the global environmental governance, directly linked with environmental (e.g. energy, climate change, water, availability of resources), economic (e.g. resource efficiency, increasing costs, consumption, waste management, commodity markets) and social (e.g. health, equality) impacts, microbiome analysis and exploitation of novel strains can have a major impact in addressing these challenges. Likewise, the development of integrated biorefineries entail the extraction and recovery of value-added components (e.g. protein fractions, phenolic extracts) that could be evaluated and included to enhance the sustainability and functionality of food systems.
This webinar serves as an interactive educational event digging further into the current research and innovation trends of microbiome applications for functional and sustainable food systems.
Date: 20 January 2023
Time: 10:00 am CET | 11:00 am EET | 4:00 am EST | 5:00 pm CST Asia
Webinar ID: 815 7183 9581
Webinar Secretariat: applsci.webinar@mdpi.com
Chair
FOODBIOMES HUB: Laboratory of Applied Microbiology & Biotechnology, Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece
Yiannis Kourkoutas is Professor of Applied Biotechnology and the Director of the Laboratory of Applied Microbiology & Biotechnology at the Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace at Alexandroupolis, Greece. His current research is focused on microbiome applications in food systems, food bioprocesses, functional foods and nutrition. He has published more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals, 14 chapters in books, > 120 conference proceedings and 4 patents (citations > 3000; h-index: 32). He has been invited as a plenary speaker and has served as chairman in several conferences, as Lead Guest Editor and an Editorial Board member in many special issues and reputed scientific journals, as member of the steering and organizing committees of International Conferences and as evaluator of research proposals in national and European calls. He has also participated in many research projects, coordinating most of them. His funds derive from EU, National Grants and the Agri-Food Industry.
Invited Speakers
FOODBIOMES HUB: Laboratory of Applied Microbiology & Biotechnology, Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece
Ioanna Prapa is a Ph.D. candidate at the Laboratory of Applied Microbiology & Biotechnology, Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece, under the supervision of Professor Yiannis Kourkoutas. She has a Degree in Molecular Biology & Genetics (2017) and has been awarded a competitive personal scholarship financed by State Scholarship Foundation of Greece and the European Union to conduct her doctorate research (2018-2021). She has published 3 peer-reviewed research papers in scientific journals and 15 conference proceedings. She is currently participating, as a research associate, in 4 research projects funded from EU and the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation.
FOODBIOMES HUB: Laboratory of Molecular Developmental Biology & Molecular Neurobiology, Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece
Ioanna Farmakioti is a PhD student in the Laboratory of Molecular Developmental Biology & Molecular Neurobiology at the Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics of Democritus University of Thrace in Alexandroupolis, Greece. She holds a BSc from the Department of Biology of Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece and an MSc in Biology of Reproduction from the Department of Medicine, University of Thessaly in Larisa, Greece. Ioanna has extensive experience in molecular and cellular biology and she has been trained in the use of laboratory animals (FELASA certificate modules A,B,C,D). Her PhD thesis focuses in the analysis of the effects of novel probiotic strains in the gut microbiome. To this end she is implementing interventions with novel strains that have been evaluated in vitro, she analyzes the structure of the gut microbial community following probiotic administration and investigates whether the changes observed may have a role in preserving health.
FOODBIOMES HUB: Laboratory of Molecular Developmental Biology & Molecular Neurobiology, Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece
Konstantinos Tegopoulos is a PhD student in the Laboratory of Molecular Developmental Biology & Molecular Neurobiology at the Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics (DMBG), Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH), Alexandroupolis, Greece. He holds a BSc (2020) and a MSc (2021) from DMBG-DUTH. For his BSc and MSc thesis, Konstantinos used several bioinformatic tools as he was involved in the whole genome sequencing and assembly construction of two novel probiotic strains of Lactobacillus. His PhD thesis focuses on Genomic & Transcriptomic analysis of species with economic importance in Agrobiology. He has been studying the structure of microbial communities of traditional food products and of Vitis vinifera grapes, leaves and must continuing in parallel, the characterization of the whole genome analysis of novel bacterial strains with probiotic properties.
FOODBIOMES HUB: Laboratory of Applied Microbiology & Biotechnology, Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece
Grigorios Nelios is a Molecular Biologist and Ph.D. student under the supervision of Professor Yiannis Kourkoutas at the Laboratory of Applied Microbiology & Biotechnology, Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece. His thesis title is focused on designing and developing novel functional foods with immobilized beneficial microorganisms.
FOODBIOMES Regional Node: Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Industrial Fermentation, Department of Food Science and Technology, Ionian University, Argostoli, Kefalonia, Greece
Dimitra Alimpoumpa is a PhD candidate at the Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Industrial Fermentation, in the Department of Food Science and Technology, belonging at the Ionian University, Kefalonia, Greece. She was trained as a food scientist (BSc in Food Technology, 2019) and subsequently obtained an MSc (2022) in the field of “Food Processing, Preservation and Biotechnological Processes-Bio-economy Products Development” at the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition of the Agricultural University of Athens. During her BSc thesis she acquired hands-on experience on indigenous yeast isolation from several grape varieties. Her MSc dissertation focused on the production of biosurfactants using several Lactobacillus isolates and the implementation of different bioprocessing schemes to evaluate food by-products as substrates. Her PhD thesis targets on the isolation of indigenous lactobacilli strains from the dairy industry, their probiotic potential, but also on their evaluation for biosurfactant production, together with identification of potential applications in the food industry, aiming to valorize agro-industrial waste and by-products streams within the pillars of bioeconomy.
FOODBIOMES Regional Node: Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Industrial Fermentation, Department of Food Science and Technology, Ionian University, Argostoli, Kefalonia, Greece
Aikaterini Natsia is a PhD student at the Department of Food Science and Technology of the Ionian University (Kefalonia, Greece), supervised by Dr. Nikolaos Kopsahelis. She has a Diploma in Food Technology (2017) from the Technological Educational Institute of Ionian Islands and holds an MSc (2020) from the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition of the Agricultural University of Athens. Her under- and post-graduate research focused on the valorization of food by-products for the isolation of functional compounds, such as antioxidants, as well as the biotechnological production of bacterial cellulose. Her PhD thesis focuses on the development of an integrated hempseed biorefinery scheme for the efficient recovery of all nutritious and bioactive compounds-rich fractions (oil, protein, antioxidants, etc) and their subsequent valorization towards the production of novel bio-economy food products with functional properties (e.g. edible films performing as encapsulating matrix of bioactive compounds).
FOODBIOMES Regional Node: Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Industrial Fermentation, Department of Food Science and Technology, Ionian University, Argostoli, Kefalonia, Greece
Fani Sereti is a Biologist and a PhD student at the Department of Food Science and Technology at the Ionian University. Her BSc/Integrated master was obtained from the Department of Biological Applications and Technology from the University of Ioannina. She also holds an MSc from the Department of Public Health Policy from the University of West Attica. Her PhD thesis is focusing on the biotechnological production of carotenoids from renewable resources using novel yeast strains, targeting the development of functional foods.
Webinar Content
Program
|
Speaker/Presentation |
Time in CET |
Time in EET |
|
Prof. Dr. Yiannis Kourkoutas Chair Introduction |
10:00 - 10:10 am |
11:00 - 11:10 am |
|
Ioanna Prapa Development of Stable Food Ingredients for Functional Modulation of Gut Microbiome |
10:10 - 10:30 am |
11:10 - 11:30 am |
|
Ioanna Farmakioti Evaluating the Effect of Probiotics in the Gut Microbial Community of Healthy Mice |
10:30 - 10:50 am |
11:30 - 11:50 am |
|
Konstantinos Tegopoulos Analyzing the Genomes of Novel Bacterial Strains With Probiotic Properties |
10:50 - 11:10 am |
11:50 am - 12:10 pm |
|
Grigorios Nelios Agricultural Residues and Food Wastes as Cultivation Media of Beneficial Microbes |
11:10 - 11:30 am |
12:10 - 12:30 pm |
|
Dimitra Alimpoumpa Biosurfactant Production From Lactobacillus Strains Through the Valorization of Dairy Industry Side Streams: Development of a Closed-Loop Process |
11:30 - 11:50 am |
12:30 - 12:50 pm |
|
Aikaterini Natsia Development of Novel Food Products: The Case of Edible Films From Hempseed Protein |
11:50 am - 12:10 pm |
12:50 - 1:10 pm |
|
Fani Sereti Biotechnological Production of Carotenoids: Towards the Development of Sustainable and Functional Food Systems |
12:10 - 12:30 pm |
1:10 - 1:30 pm |
|
Q&A Session |
12:30 - 12:45 pm |
1:30 - 1:45 pm |
|
Closing of Webinar |
12:45 pm |
1:45 pm |
Relevant SI
Guest Editors: Dr. Yiannis Kourkoutas, Prof. Dr. Eugenia Bezirtzoglou, Dr. Christina Tsigalou & Dr. Gregoria Mitropoulou
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2023
Sponsors and Partners
Organizers
