Academic Profile & Vision

The Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology (DBB) was founded in 2000 in response to the country’s need for new highly trained graduates in the scientific area of Biochemistry and Biotechnology. Since then, the Department has grown rapidly in the number of graduates and in scientific staff and infrastructures. The DBB has 24 faculty members with expertise in state-of-the-art scientific disciplines to support the needs of its demanding undergraduate syllabus and the six postgraduate studies programs. Currently, 1155 biochemist-biotechnologists have graduated, and 794 postgraduate and 96 doctorate degrees have been awarded.

The academic and scientific excellence and extroversion constitute fundamental characteristics of the Department’s academic profile. There are 8 established Research Laboratories conducting state of the art research comprising of the Laboratory of Genetics, Comparative and Evolution Biology, the Laboratory of Structural and Functional Biochemistry, the Laboratory of Molecular Biotechnology and Genomics, the Laboratory of Plant Biotechnology and Environment, the Laboratory of Animal Physiology, the Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry, the Laboratory of Microbial Biotechnology-Molecular Bacteriology-Virology and the Laboratory of Bioinformatics.

The DBB has developed numerous collaborations with prestigious national and international academic institutions rendering it an important node of innovation and research in the scientific areas of Biochemistry and Biotechnology in Greece and abroad as it is signified by (α) the attraction of more than 9.5 million euros of research funding during the period 2017-2022 and (b) the coordination of eight research projects funded by the European Commission with annual budget of over 500 thousands euros. Based on scientific excellence the DBB is ranked 3rd among the departments of the University of Thessaly in funding acquisition. Based on the high expertise of its scientific staff the DBB contributes actively in basic and applied research in the areas of Health, Agrofood Sector and Environment as depicted by the generation of numerous publications in high-ranking peer reviewed international scientific journals. In parallel the Department contributes actively to the development of the region of Thessaly through innovative research projects and providing services in collaboration with the private sector of Thessaly while it coordinates the first research infrastructure in Greece on Synthetic Biology in AgroFood Sector (https://www.omicengine.com).

A high priority for the Department is the interaction with the society through the development of consulting actions for the social institutions, media appearances and event organization such as visits of refugee students to the Department, online departmental tour for students of the second chance prison school in Larisa, training tutors for refugee camps, visits of faculty members to schools. It also participates to projects for popularization of science and actions such as Open Doors, Researcher’s Night, Science Festival, The Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF) etc.
Facing the future, the Department’s aspiration is to continue to provide high level Education in the modern disciplines of the scientific area of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, reinforcing in parallel its position in international scientific community acting as a pole of scientific innovation in direct interaction with industry, through the development of new innovative products and practices but also with society through a continuous communication and transfer of knowledge.