21/3/2025
The Climeco2mbs team of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) achieved a significant international distinction by securing 1st place at the Hackathon Türkiye-Greece 2025. The competition brought together young scientists from Greece and Turkey with the aim of developing innovative solutions to contemporary environmental and technological challenges. The goal of the competition is to strengthen bilateral cooperation through science, technology, and entrepreneurship, with a focus on sustainable development, marine technology, and the management of environmental challenges.
The Climeco2mbs team, in collaboration with talented colleagues from Turkey, created the Ecomaris team, which presented an innovative proposal for sustainable and environmentally friendly coastal infrastructures.
The Climeco2mbs project, developed by the Departments of Physics and Chemistry at NKUA, played a key role in this achievement, incorporating cutting-edge technologies to reduce the carbon footprint of building infrastructures.
The Archimedes NKUA supported the European patent application process for the Climeco2mbs project, while the team also participated in the 8th Cycle of Business Acceleration of Archimedes, receiving valuable guidance and support for the commercial exploitation of their technology.
The Climeco2mbs team consists of:
● Professor Margarita Niki Asimakopoulou, Department of Physics
● Dr. Vasilis Ntouros, Department of Physics
● Dr. Panagiotis Oikonomopoulos, Department of Chemistry
● Professor Patrina Paraskevopoulou, Department of Chemistry
● Professor Giannis S. Papaefstathiou, Department of Chemistry
This distinction is a strong testament to the power of international collaboration, demonstrating how young scientists can make a significant contribution to addressing real global challenges through research, technology, and innovation.
The NKUA team looks forward to the next challenges and opportunities to create, inspire, and contribute to a more sustainable world!
You can also check the related announcement on the NKUA HUB here: Link
7/12/2023
A novel class of compounds exhibiting anticancer and antifibrotic activities were developed by the group of Prof. George Kokotos in the Department of Chemistry at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. These novel compounds target and are selective inhibitors of class I Histone Deacetylases (HDACs). They have been designed and synthesized exclusively in NKUA and the study of their biological and pharmacological activities were performed in cooperation with the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens (Dr P. Politis), the Biomedical Sciences Research Center “Alexander Fleming” (Dr. V. Aidinis) and the University of Queensland, Australia (Prof. D. Fairlie). The study of the mechanism of action revealed that the new inhibitors not only present potent inhibition of HDACs, but also downregulate the expression of EGFR, which is associated with cancer progression and poor survival. Preclinical studies showed for the first time that such inhibitors may prevent pulmonary fibrosis, contributing to the understanding of the disease and leading to new approaches for the development of novel agents to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
The research of George Kokotos group is dedicated to the design and discovery of novel enzyme inhibitors for the treatment of cancer, inflammatory diseases and neurological disorders. The results of the present study have been published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.
05/10/23
The high level of the research carried out by the research groups of the Department of Chemistry of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens was reflected in the annual global academic performance assessment ranking "World's Top 2% Scientists List", which was published in October 2023. The ranking is based on a study carried out annually by researchers at Stanford University (USA), which ranks scientists based on the citations to their scientific papers, according to the SCOPUS database, the largest database of scientific publications. More details can be found on the website:
https://elsevier.digitalcommonsdata.com/datasets/btchxktzyw/6
The ranking concerns over 8,000,000 scientists worldwide, based on a series of indicators measuring the impact of their published work, such as the citations received by each scientist with at least 5 publications. Specifically, the published ranking includes those who belong to the top 2% in their scientific area, based on a classification presented in 22 scientific fields and 174 subfields.
The below list includes a total of twelve members of the Academic Staff of the Department of Chemistry, nine active and three retired, whose names, based on the impact of their published work, in order of ranking, are:
Economou Anastasios
Lianidou Evi
Kokotos George (retired)
Vougioukalakis Georgios
Valavanidis Anastasios (retired)
Kokotos Christoforos
Thomaidis Nikolaos
Danopoulos Andreas
Proestos Charalampos
Kokkinos Christos
Mavromoustakos Thomas
Nikolelis Dimitrios (retired)
