Lab Group
The Lab Group of World Olive Center for Health.
Prof. Prokopios Magiatis
Prokopios Magiatis, Ph.D., M.Sc., is associate Professor of Pharmacognosy and Natural Products Chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Athens. He has worked as a visiting professor at the University of California, Davis and at the Virginia Commonwealth University. In 2009, he was awarded the Egon-Stahl silver medal as the top scientist under 40 years old in the field of natural-products chemistry and pharmacology. He is an author of >130 publications and 10 patents. He has been awarded as the inventor of the year 2016 in Greece for his invention ARISTOLEO. He is scientific coordinator of the Interreg MED project “ARISTOIL”.
Dr. Eleni Melliou
Dr. Eleni Melliou is a laboratory Teaching Staff in the University of Athens, in the department of Pharmacy, laboratory of Pharmacognosy and Chemistry of natural products. In 2011 she worked as visiting professor in the department of food science and technology of the university of California in Davis. She has >50 publications and two patents. Since 2012 she collaborates with the UC Davis Olive center. In 2014-2016 she had an affiliate professor position at the Virginia Commonwealth University. She has been awarded as the inventor of the year 2016 in Greece for her invention ARISTOLEO. Together with prof. Magiatis she has created the first university lab offering analysis of olive oil by NMR regarding its content on health protecting ingredients and will be responsible for the analytical laboratory.
Christos Papanikolaou
Graduate degree in Biochemistry-Biotechnology in the University of Thessaly, specialized in clinical chemistry techniques, working on development of HPLC detection of retinoids in serum with UV-Electrochemical detection. PhD degree from School of Medicine in the University of Thessaly, in the field of Hematology, specialized on molecular techniques of human DNA and RNA analysis, SNPs identification in genes related to diseases, bacterial transformation, and cell cultures. Post-doctoral research in Faculty of Pharmacy of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, focused on olive oil research associated with clinical studies of olive oil phenols in human diseases.
Trained in analytical methods and NMR analysis of olive oil. At the moment participates in the Interreg MED ARISTOIL program “Reinforcement of Mediterranean olive oil sector competitiveness through development and application of innovative production and quality control methodologies related to olive oil health protecting properties”.
Diamantakos Panagiotis
Graduate degree in Chemical Engineering in the University of Patras, Greece, focused on membrane technology. Master degree in “Production and Quality Control of Bioactive natural products” in the Faculty of Pharmacy of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Diploma thesis: “Oleokoronal and Oleomissional: New phenolic compounds of extra virgin olive oil”.
PhD Candidate in the Faculty of Pharmacy of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens focused on olive oil research. At the moment he is working on the <<Aristoil >> research program.
Annia Tsolakou
Graduated from Agricultural University of Athens, Department of Biotechnology. Specialized in techniques regarding the molecular analysis of olive tree samples. Worked with genetical markers for the discrimination among different olive varieties at IBBA-CNR, Italy. Acquired a Postgraduate Degree of Specialization in “Production and Quality Control of Bioactive natural products”, researching the stability of oleocanthal and related phenolic compounds in EVOO. Τrained to olive oil analysis methods, with the use of NMR spectroscopy. PhD candidate at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of Pharmacy and participates in the Interreg MED ARISTOIL programme “Reinforcement of Mediterranean olive oil sector competitiveness through development and application of innovative production and quality control methodologies related to olive oil health protecting properties”.
Aimilia Rigakou
Graduate degree from the Chemistry department at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
Postgraduate studies in “Production and Quality Control of Bioactive natural products” program in the faculty of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Master Diploma thesis “Elenolide – Oleomissional: Isolation and their quantification in olive oil”
PhD candidate in the faculty of Pharmacy of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
From November 2015, my main focus is NMR analysis of olive oil, an activity taking place in the laboratory of Prof. Magiatis. During my thesis, I obtained insight on several related topics, including the natural products’ isolation and identification, particularly in the constituents of olive oil and olive fruit using chromatography (LC, GC, HPLC) and spectroscopy (NMR).
Aikaterini Papakonstantinou
Graduate degree in the department of Pharmacy of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, specialized in Pharmacognosy and Chemistry of Natural Products. Postgraduate degree in the faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Athens, with MSc thesis “Study of the chemical composition and bioactivity of the secretion of the Helix aspersa”.
During her studies at the University of Athens she gained experience in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and very good knowledge of analytical techniques such as Thin Liquid Chromatography (TLC), Column Liquid Chromatography and Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry (GC- MS). Finally, during this period she is a PhD Candidate in the Faculty of Pharmacy of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Her research interest is related to olive oil and from March 2017 she participates in the European Research Program “ARISTOIL”.