What can bread and cheese making have in common with the creation of a vaccine or artificial insemination? They’re the result of biotechnological processes.
Moderator : Fotini Georgiou, Journalist
Experts:
Marina Hatsopoulos, Entrepreneur, Angel investor and Board Chair at Levitronix Technologies
Efstratios Stylianidis, Vice Rector for Research and Lifelong Learning of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Nasos Koskinas, Business Developer, 2Bull Medi Therapy
Dr. Zoe Cournia, Investigator – Associate Professor Level of the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens and Founder of Ingredio
To watch the full episode
What can bread and cheese making have in common with the creation of a vaccine or artificial insemination? They’re the result of biotechnological processes. Utilizing knowledge from the science of Biology, Biotechnology discovers and produces new products and technologies in order to improve the standard of living.
Today, Biotechnology is a huge, ever-evolving global industry with applications in many areas of life from health to agriculture.
How do the "miracles" of the laboratory reach the public? How is research and innovation linked to the market? What are the life sciences today and at what level are they in terms of research? What different occupations are employed in this new industry? In which market sectors is biotechnology applied? Investment and return: is there an immediate time for success and profit or are these long-term investment projects? How active is our country in this field in relation to other countries? Should international partnerships be made?
In this ExpertTalk, journalist Fotini Georgiou discusses all these issues with the experts: Entrepreneur, Angel investor and Board Chair at Levitronix Technologies, Marina Hatsopoulos, Vice Rector for Research and Lifelong Learning of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Efstratios Stylianidis, Business Developer of 2Bull Medi Therapy, Nasos Koskinas, and Investigator – Associate Professor Level of the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens and Founder of Ingredio, Dr. Zoe Cournia.
Fotini Georgiou is a journalist of medical reporting on ANT1.
She has her own show on ANT1 channel called "Health above all".
Marina Hatsopoulos is an entrepreneur and angel investor. She is the Board Chair and angel investor in Levitronix Technologies, a company that holds a leading position in magnetic-suspended pumps. She is the CEO of Cynosure, a $250,000,000 company that leads in laser beauty products, as well as the CEO and angel investor in Dear Kate, a company that produces technological fashion products. She is a member of the advisory board of the Nantucket Conference and the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at MIT. She was the founder, CEO and lead investor in Z Corporation, a company with a focus on 3D printing, valued at $30,000,000 at the time of its sale. She was also the CEO of GSI Group, a $300,000,000 group that manufactures laser products, and Contex Holding, a $100,000,000 scanner manufacturer. She was an angel investor and CEO of TeaForte, which was sold to Sara Lee in late 2011. She holds a Bachelor's degree from Brown University and a postgraduate degree from MIT.
Efstratios Stylianidis was born in Paphos, Cyprus. He holds a Bachelor & Master’s Degree in Surveying Engineering (1996) and a PhD in Photogrammetry (2001) from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
He is an Associate Professor (2018) at the School of Spatial Planning and Development, Faculty of Engineering in the field of Geodesy-Photogrammetry.
His teaching and research interests include Photogrammetry and Geospatial Engineering. He has been a visiting Professor at Columbia University (2018). As an invited speaker, he has given lectures at several high-ranked universities and institutions abroad, such as Princeton University, UCLA, Imperial University, Tsinghua University, Getty Conversation Institute, etc.
He is the author of 2 books, 75 publications in scientific conferences and journals, 8 book chapters and volumes, and he is the editor of 2 books.
He has participated in 43 research projects funded by national and European resources, 8 of which as project and scientific coordinator. He has served as reviewer in 14 scientific journals and has participated in more than 50 conferences, in more than half as a member of the organizational and/or scientific committee. He is a founding member of the “UAV-iRC - Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Research Center" housed in the Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation (KEDEK) and the “AUTH - Medical Experts Research Group”. At present, he is the Secretary General of CIPA - Heritage Documentation, an international scientific association for the digital documentation of cultural heritage worldwide.
Nasos Koskinas is the founder of POS4work Innovation Hub, a registered accelerator in the “Elevate Greece” – the official startup platform of the Hellenic Government.
As an experienced business specialist, Nasos has supported many innovative companies and now is the new member of the Biotech Startup “2bullMeDiTherapy aiming the global expansion of the diagnostic test for the detection of the aortic aneurysm.
Through POS4work, Nasos has played a crucial role in the startup ecosystem by designing significant innovation initiatives on technology and entrepreneurship such as hackathons, innovation challenges and entrepreneurship contests with the participation of multinational companies, influential organisations, universities, and successful startups.
Furthermore, he is the facilitator of “StartupsOnline”, a digital event for the startup ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in Greece. Driven by the vision of synergy and collaboration, he is always interested in forming partnerships between multinational corporations, startups, investors, and R&D labs.
Dr. Cournia is a Researcher – Associate Professor levelat the Biomedical Research Foundation, Academy of Athens, where she works on anticancer drug and materials design using High Performance Computing (http://www.drugdesign.gr). She graduated from the Chemistry Department, University of Athens in 2001 and received her PhD at the University of Heidelberg in Germany in 2006. She then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Chemistry Department, Yale University, USA, on computer-aided drug design and in 2009 she became a Lecturer at Yale College. She has been awarded with the American Association for Cancer Research Angiogenesis Fellowship (2008), the "Woman of Innovation 2009" Award from the Connecticut Technology Council, USA, the Marie Curie Fellowship from the European Union (2010), the "Outstanding Junior Faculty Award" from the American Chemical Society (2014) and the first "Ada Lovelace Award" from the "Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe" (2016). She is the Associate Editor of the Journal of Chemical information and Modeling, American Chemical Society, and a member of the Infrastructure Advisory Group (INFRAG) of the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking. She is currently teaching at the Master’s program “Information Technologies in Technology and Medicine” at the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, National University of Athens. She is the Founder of Ingredio, a mobile phone app that informs consumers on the potential hazards of chemical ingredients in food and cosmetics products using open, peer-reviewed data (http://www.ingred.io/android).
