Dr. Vassiliki Nikoletopoulou, Researcher at the IMBB, earned a highly competitive ERC starting grant. This grant is a funding scheme that supports young talented research leaders to gain independence and build their own research laboratory in Europe. The research interests and expertise of Dr. Nikoletopoulou bridge over the fields of neurobiology and metabolism.

Greek researchers from the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (IESL) of the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), in collaboration with the Universities of Cambridge, UK and Mexico, have created a novel energy-efficient switch utilising a "liquid form" of light. The device could be a breakthrough in electronics providing unprecedented energy - efficient circuits.

Professor Nektarios Tavernarakis, Director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of FORTH, was appointed as new member of the Scientific Council of the ERC. New members are selected by an independent Identification Committee, composed of six distinguished scientists appointed by the Commission. The scientific community was consulted in this process.

Alexandros Lappas, a chemical physicist and Research Director in the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (IESL) at FORTH, will be supported by the Fulbright Foundation under their 2016-17 Visiting Scholars program (www.fulbright.gr) with the purpose to lecture and conduct research in the United States.

Nektarios Tavernarakis, a researcher at the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH), has recently been awarded for the second time the prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Investigator Grant for his research proposal titled “MacroAutophagy and Necrotic Neurodegeneration in Ageing”.

Research at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, published today in the premier international scientific journal Nature, reveals an intricate molecular mechanism that coordinates the biogenesis and selective elimination of mitochondria, to regulate cellular energy homeostasis during ageing.

George Garinis, a Professor at the Department of Biology, University of Crete and an affiliated group leader at the Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH), has recently been awarded the prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant for his research proposal titled "Dissecting the Functional Role of Nucleotide Excision Repair in Mammals-DeFiNER."

IMBB researchers Dr. Nikos Kourtis and Dr. Vassiliki Nikoletopoulou, headed by Prof. Nektarios Tavernarakis, uncovered a universal and potent protective mechanism against neuronal necrosis.

A state-of-the art approach to enhance the resolution of non-invasive medical diagnosis techniques is to utilize nano-size materials which are delivered at the regions of interest and allow improved tissue contrast. For such applications, magnetic iron oxides are emerging as promising probes in the diagnosis of various diseases and especially in the area of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Researchers at the Department of Biomedical Research IMBB Ioannina revealed that growth factor signaling in cells integrates the response mechanism to the presence of unfolded proteins (Unfolded Protein Response, UPR) in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). This study shows that ER plays an important role in normal cell functions, such as signaling by growth factors, and is not limited to the adaptation of the cell to stress.