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Amalia Yanni is a Research and Teaching Associate in the Laboratory of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Physical Chemistry of Foods at the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics of Harokopio University of Athens, Greece. Her research interests are focused on food bioactive compounds and their mechanisms of action, foods with health-promoting effects and nutrition. Further research is related to developing functional, sustainable foods with plant-based materials to prevent and manage metabolic disorders. She has published more than 40 papers in peer-reviewed international journals and more than 70 conference proceedings and has two patents. She has participated in research projects funded by the EU, National Grants and the Food Industry, as a Principal Investigator or as a research team member.

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Yiannis Kourkoutas is Professor of Applied Biotechnology and the Director of the Laboratory of Applied Microbiology & Biotechnology at the Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace at Alexandroupolis, Greece. His current research is focused on microbiome applications in food systems, food bioprocesses, functional foods and nutrition. He has published more than 120 papers in peer-reviewed journals, 14 chapters in books, > 150 conference proceedings and 4 patents (citations > 3000; h-index: 32). He has been invited as a plenary speaker and has served as chairman in several conferences, as Lead Guest Editor and an Editorial Board member in many special issues and reputed scientific journals, as member of the steering and organizing committees of International Conferences and as evaluator of research proposals in national and European calls. He has also participated in many research projects, coordinating most of them. His funds are derived from the EU, national grants, and the agri-food industry.

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Dr. Nikolaos Kostomitsopoulos is a veterinarian specialising in laboratory animal science medicine. He is working as a Senior Research Scientist at the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, Greece and is the head of the laboratory animal facility. His scientific interests are focused on the proper care and use of laboratory animals, the ethical evaluation of research protocols, the design of laboratory animal facilities, and the education and training of scientists working in the field of Laboratory Animal Science. He is teaching “Laboratory Animal Ethics” in the Bioethics Master Program of the Medical School of the Democritus University of Thrace, Greece, and he is participating as an invited speaker on Bioethics in four MSc Courses organized by the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens. Dr. Kostomitsopoulos has been a co-author in over 120 peer-reviewed articles in International and Greek scientific journals and 1 book chapter (h-index 23).

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Dr. Koutelidakis is an Associate Professor of Human Nutrition and Director of the Master's Program “Nutrition, Wellbeing and Public Health”. His scientific interest is focused on traditional and novel functional foods, bioavailability and bioactivity of bio-functional ingredients, epidemiological and interventional studies investigating the role of nutrition and functional foods on disease prevention and health promotion, with emphasis on postprandial state. He has authored about 65 publications in scientific journals and 90 announcements at Greek and international conferences.

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Olga Papagianni is a postdoc researcher in the Unit of Human Nutrition of the Laboratory of Nutrition and Health, Department of Food Science and Nutrition. Her scientific interests are focused on the development of functional foods, based on traditional raw materials and bioactive compounds, and the design of interventional studies-clinical trials and epidemiological studies to investigate their bioactivity and bioavailability. She has authored about 10 publications in scientific journals and 25 announcements at Greek and international conferences.

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Dr. Andreas G. Tzakos is a Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Ioannina, Greece. He is the head of a Chemical Biology Lab and also head of the Bioanalytical Center & Analytical Center which operates under the ISO:17025 accreditation. Andreas conducted his postdoctoral research as an EMBO fellow at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge, UK) and received many prestigious grants and awards including Marie Curie, EMBO, FEBS, NATO, Leonidas Zervas, and his work on the discovery of potent bioactive compounds has been awarded by the Academy of Athens. His main research interest includes the design and development of therapeutics, diagnostics and theranostics as well as unveiling the phytochemical profile of medicinal plants. He recently established with colleagues the BEST EpirusHerbs herbarium consisting of more than 1600 medicinal plants, for which the metabolic profile and several biological functions have been determined. This is very actively used in the development of novel plant-based products. He has authored more than 160 international publications in the field, one academic book, edited three books, participated in developing 3 software, is on the editorial board of several International Journals, has five patents and serves as vice chair on several European Calls.