RESEARCH TEAM

Research Team

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS

Thanos Dailianis is a senior researcher at IMBBC-HCMR, specializing in marine biology, ecology, and biotechnological applications. His research focuses on the biology of benthic invertebrates and their adaptation to environmental gradients, the ecology of coastal habitats including their conservation and restoration, as well as the exploration and monitoring of marine biodiversity. He is head of the Scientific Diving Unit and the Biodiversity Laboratory of IMBBC. As coordinator of MACCIMO, Dr Dailianis oversees the scientific progress of the project, fosters effective collaboration within the research team and across workpackages, and ensures the timely implementation of planned tasks. In his additional role as WP1 leader, he is responsible for project administration, supervision of dissemination activities, and the synthesis and communication of the project’s outcomes and results. 

Eva Chatzinikolaou is a research fellow at IMBBC-HCMR, investigating the effects of climate change and ocean acidification on marine gastropods using controlled experimental design, micro-computed tomography (micro-CT), geometric morphometrics and behavioural experiments. Her interests also include marine biodiversity, intertidal ecology, population dynamics, marine pollution and environmental protection. Published >50 scientific articles and book chapters. Editor and reviewer in >25 journals; expert evaluator in EU proposals. Has wide experience on project management and implementation (leader in 8, participant in 16). She is the scientific coordinator of the ERFI RI LifewatchGreece. Has organised environmental education and citizen science awareness actions. Within MACCIMO, she will contribute to the experimental set-up and implementation of experiments (WP2) and investigate the morphological shell characteristics (WP3).

Panos Grigoriou is a research technician at CretAquarium (HCMR). He has studied the effect of different biotic and abiotic parameters on the oxygen consumption rate of various marine animals. Has wide experience on animal rearing under laboratory conditions, investigating different growth conditions, physiology and reproduction. His current research focuses on climate change, ocean acidification and coral rearing. Within MACCIMO, Dr Grigoriou will contribute to the experimental set up and implementation of experiments (WP2) and will investigate the metabolic rate as a result of different experimental treatments (WP4).

Anastasia Gioti is a research fellow at IMBBC-HCMR, where she studies fungal symbioses and biodiversity in marine environments. Anastasia holds a B.Sc. in Biology (NKUA, GR), a MSc. and a PhD in Genomics (University Paris-XI, FR) and an additional diploma in Bioinformatics (Institut Pasteur, FR). She has broad experience in microbiology, computational biology, and evolution, having served as project member, coordinator, principal investigator and Ass. Professor for Horizon2020 and national research programs in a number of institutes around the world (UCL-EBI, Uppsala University, Karolinska Institute-SciLifeLab, University California Riverside, University of Crete, American Farm School). Within MACCIMO, Dr. Gioti will coordinate the molecular work and perform all bioinformatics and statistical analyses for the study of microsymbiotic communities (WP6).

Jon Bent Kristoffersen is a research fellow at IMBBC-HCMR. He has participated as a project member in international and national research programs. He has 10 years of experience in Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), and has been managing the IMBBC NGS laboratory since 2014. His main expertise is in NGS sequencing techniques, especially microbial diversity and metabarcoding with environmental DNA, with broad experience in all steps from study design, library construction strategies, sequencing, and data analysis. Within MACCIMO, Dr Kristoffersen will construct amplicon libraries and perform NGS sequencing for the identification of microsymbiotic communities in the frame of WP6.

Elisavet Kaitetzidou is a molecular biologist at IMBBC-HCMR, occupied in the understanding of the expression and transcriptional regulation processes of animal genes/genomes and their phenotypic signature. She has been working with gene expression of marine organisms during her undergraduate studies, her master and her PhD thesis. Her research interests include transcriptional response of organisms under physiological processes such as development and physiological challenges, such as thermal stress, nutritional and immunological stimulations. Within MACCIMO, Dr Kaitetzidou will be responsible for WP5 on the assessment of gene expression. Her experience in relevant studies will allow the accomplishment of the preparatory phase as well as the implementation of all WP tasks, from total RNA extraction to the analysis of the results.

Niki Keklikoglou is a research fellow with an MSc in Environmental Biology and Management of Terrestrial and Marine Biological Resources. Her main research interests include marine biodiversity focusing on benthic invertebrates, ecology, micro-computed tomography (micro-CT), ocean acidification and coastal light pollution. She has authored 32 scientific publications and participated in more than 30 conferences. She has actively participated in several research projects, including FP7 European projects, Horizon 2020, ENPI CBC-MED, INTERREG and national projects. She is the principal investigator for HCMR in three projects (2 European and 1 national project). Within MACCIMO, Niki Keklikoglou will be responsible for assessment of morphological characters in WP3. She will establish the methodological protocols regarding the specimen preparation, micro-CT scanning and the 3D analysis.

Nikos Papandroulakis is a Research Director at IMBBC-HCMR, focused on the improvement of marine aquaculture methodologies and technologies and the use of mathematical models of fish growth and food consumption towards the development of automated management systems in hatcheries and cage farms. Has published 4 book chapters and more than 100 papers in scientific journals. Coordinator or partner in 34 National and EU projects. He has participated as lecturer of Master’s and PhD courses on aquaculture at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and since 2016 at the “Erasmus+ Joint Master Degree in Aquaculture Environment and Society”. Within MACCIMO, Dr Papandroulakis will supervise the use of the metabolic chamber infrastructure in the framework of WP4.

SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATES

Emmanouela Vernadou is a Biologist with an MSc in Environmental Biology and Management of Terrestrial and Marine Biological Resources. Her interests focus on aquatic ecology, and she is a certified diving scientist with experience in underwater biodiversity census, experimental rearing of marine organisms, and micro-CT bioimaging techniques. Within MACCIMO, she will contribute to the experimental set-up and implementation of experiments (WP2) and to the investigation of morphological traits (WP3).

Thanos Anastasiadis is a technician Ichthyologist with Msc Sustainable fisheries, and aquaculture (University of Patras, GR) and holds a B.Sc. in Ichthyology (University of Patras, GR). His current research focuses on predation, climate change, and ocean acidification in invertebrates. His main expertise is his experience in animal rearing under laboratory conditions. Also, his research focuses on investigating different growth conditions, physiology, and reproduction. Within MACCIMO, he will contribute to the experimental set-up and implementation of experiments (WP2) and will also contribute to the metabolic experiments (WP4).

Georgia Tarifa is a PhD student (University of Crete), also currently working at Genetics lab, IMBBC-HCMR. Her main expertise is in the application of metabarcoding techniques in microbial ecology and investigation of environmental and host-associated microbiomes. Her research work also includes bioinformatic processing of NGS data down to the final multivariate statistical evaluations. Within MACCIMO she will optimize DNA extraction protocols for the animals and rearing water samples, perform sampling, extract DNA from the samples. Additionally, she will develop and optimize PCR protocols for successful amplification in the frame of WP6 task of the identification of microsymbiotic communities.

Harris Markomanolaki is a molecular biologist (Msc). She has been a research assistant from 2004 to 2015 in the University of Crete, working on molecular & cellular methods in various projects. In HCMR, she initially worked as an assistant project manager from 2019 to 2022 and since September 2023 she has been back to the lab working on molecular methods. Within MACCIMO, Harris will work on WP5 with Dr Elisavet Kaitetzidou, performing extraction of total RNA as well as subsequent quantification and quality control, from samples of marine invertebrates (sponges and gastropods) after exposure to high temperature and reduced pH. She will also undertake the management of materials required in the procedures of the experiments.

STUDENTS

Carlotta Paone is an MSc student in Marine Biology at the University of Algarve, collaborating with MACCIMO for her MSc thesis project. Within MACCIMO, Carlotta works with Dr Elisavet Kaitetzidou for WP5 on the assessment of gene expression, focusing specifically on the transcriptomic response of the sponge Chondrilla nucula to thermal stress. Her research interests involve climate change impacts and marine conservation ecology. She has actively participated in several climate-related projects, including algal ecophysiology response to warming, and effects of bivalve farming on blue carbon stocks.
Bekir Kasli is a Business Informatics graduate currently pursuing his second BSc in Biology at Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich. He joined the MACCIMO project as a research intern under the supervision of Dr. Anastasia Gioti. Within MACCIMO, Bekir contributes to WP6, conducting bioinformatics analyses to characterize microsymbiont communities and evaluate their responses to experimental treatments. He is willing to pursue an academic career in Bioinformatics.
Francesco Fabiano is a PhD student affiliated with the Anton Dohrn Zoological Station (SZN) and the University of Palermo (UniPa). Having recently returned from the POSEIDON sampling campaign, he is currently conducting part of his PhD research at the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) in Crete. His PhD research focuses on studying microbial communities along the water column of two little-studied seamounts in the Mediterranean: Marsili and Palinuro. Within MACCIMO, he is involved in WP5 for the bioinformatic processing of RNA-seq sequences of Hexaplex trunculus under supervision by Dr Elisavet Kaitetzidou. His work focused on technical validation, mapping efficiency, differential gene expression, sample clustering and global expression trends.

WEBSITE & PROJECT OUTREACH

Irene Filiopoulou is a web and mobile developer at the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), with extensive experience in developing web and mobile applications within national and European research projects. Since 2015, she has been working at IMBBC–HCMR, focusing on the design and implementation of websites, web applications and digital infrastructures for projects such as LifeWatch, LifeMareNatura, AquaCosm and MACCIMO. Her expertise includes CMS-based and custom web development, as well as interactive applications for scientific data dissemination and digital education.