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Department History

2000
  • The Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology of the School of Health Sciences of the University of Thessaly, located in Larisa Greece, was established in 2000. The Department accepted its first students during the academic year 2000-2001.
2003
  • The Department participated for the first time in the ERASMUS / SOCRATES programs and since then it has partnered and maintained agreements with many Universities abroad while it exploits agreements of the University of Thessaly.
2004
  • Graduation of the first 15 Biochemists-Biotechnologists.
2006
  • Defense and graduation of the first two PhD candidates.
  • The first Postgraduate Program (MSc) of the Department entitled “Biotechnology-Quality of Nutrition and Environment” was established.
2008
  • The Department became autonomous (1st General Assembly: 05/03/2008).The Postgraduate Program entitled “Applications of Molecular Biology- Molecular Genetics- Diagnostic markers” was established.
2009
  • Τhe professional rights of the graduates of the Department were established by the Presidential Decree 104/2009.
  • Establishment of the Internship Program for the employment of the students in the private or public sector for a period of 2 months.
  • Foundation of the Laboratory of Genetics, Comparative and Evolutionary Biology and the Laboratory of Animal Physiology (Government Gazette 11971 / 10-9-2009).
2010
  • 10 years since the establishment of the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology: 270 graduates, 81 postgraduate diplomas, 19 PhD dissertations, 198 publications in scientific journals (Scopus).
2011
  • First evaluation of the Department by a group of external reviewers.
2013
  • The Department mourned the premature death of the Assistant Professor Vassilis Bagiatis who organized and taught the courses of Informatics and Biostatistics since 2004. He tirelessly contributed to all the activities of the Department. In his honour, the Computer Laboratory was named after him.
2014
  • The Internship program of the Department is funded by NSRF program 2014-2020.
  • Inauguration of an annual two-day open days event for students and teachers of the high schools of the Thessaly Region.
2015
  • The Undergraduate Studies Program was reformed and the prerequisite of the successful completion of the 75% of the ECTS of the 1st & 2nd year, before enrolling in the 3rd year, was introduced which accelerated the graduation of the students.
  • Two Postgraduate Programs were established: “Toxicology” and “Bioentrepreneurship” which is co-organized with the Institute of Biology, Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Biotechnology, The National Hellenic Research Foundation.
  • Foundation of the Laboratories of Structural and Functional Biochemistry, Bioorganic Chemistry, Microbial Biotechnology – Molecular Bacteriology – Virology, Molecular Biology & Genomics, Plant & Environmental Biotechnology and Bioinformatics (Government Gazette 515 / 3.4.2015).
2016
  • The Department was relocated to a modern building of 5200 sq. m., funded by the Operational Program of the Region of Thessaly (NSRF 2007-2013), and along with the premises of the School of Medicine constitute the “Viopolis” campus.
2017
  • Additional professional rights were obtained (Government Gazette 193 / Α / 13-12-2017) and the graduates became eligible for teaching at high school level.
  • A new Postgraduate Program, entitled “Advanced Experimental and Computational Biosciences” was introduced, which is implemented exclusively in english.
  • All Postgraduate Programs of the Department were re-established in accordance to the decree 4485/2017.
2018
  • Establishment of the National Research Infrastructure in Synthetic Biology OMIC-Engine which is coordinated by the Department and funded by the Operational Program “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation” (NSRF 2014-2020).
  • The “Certificate of Pedagogical and Teaching Adequacy” is issued to the eligible graduates of the Department.
  • Establishment of the spin-off company FoodOxys by the Laboratory of Animal Physiology.
2019
  • Certification of the Undergraduate Program with high score by the National Higher Education Authority (ETHAE).
  • iGEM Thessaly, a group of students from the Department in collaboration with students from the University of Thessaly, created the ODYSSEE project which won the gold medal in the International Competition of Synthetic Biology iGEM and was nominated for the medals “Best Integrated Human Practices” and “Best Supporting Entrepreneurship”.
2020
  • 20 years since the establishment of the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology: 884 graduates, 585 postgraduate diplomas, 64 PhD dissertations, 757 publications in scientific journals (Scopus).
  • The “Certification of Computer Adequacy” is issued to the eligible graduates of the Department.
  • For the second consecutive year, iGEM Thessaly won with the AMALTHEA project the gold medal in the International Competition of Synthetic Biology iGEM.
2021
  • Establishment of the Postgraduate Program “Host-Microbial Interactions” in collaboration with the Department of Ichthyology and Aquatic Environment and the Department of Agriculture Crop Production and Rural Environment of the University of Thessaly, which is implemented exclusively in English.
  • Certification of the Laboratory of Animal Physiology with ISO 9001: 2015 for biochemical and biological analysis services by SWISS APPROVAL.
2023
  • The first two MSc courses of the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, MSc in Biotechnology – Food and Environmental Quality and MSc in Applications of Molecular Biology – Genetics – Diagnostic Biomarkers went through the accreditation process by the Higher National Education Authority (ETHAE).
  • The iGEM Thessaly 2023 student team, under the mentoring of Professors of the DBB, participated in the Word Competition of Synthetic Biology in Paris and was awarded a gold medal and it was voted amongst the best 10 teams of the whole Competition.
2024
  • The Department has implemented a reformed curriculum that aims to provide knowledge, develop skills, and cultivate competencies as career tools in the globalized labor market.
  • The iGEM Thessaly 2024 team, under the mentoring of Professors of the DBB, won a gold medal for the project “THAELIA” for the sixth consecutive year and is now the first Greek team to win a special award in the field of General Synthetic Biology.
2025
  • 25 since the establishment of the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology: 1275 graduates, 948 postgraduate diplomas, 110 PhD dissertations, 1672 publications in scientific journals (Scopus). The department celebrated its 25th anniversary with a series of scientific and cultural events, activities for secondary school students, and networking with its alumni.
  • The interdisciplinary team from the University of Thessaly that participated in the iGEM 2025 competition with the project “Clotho: Weaving a Cure for PDAC” won a gold medal and was also nominated in the Best Entrepreneurship category.