The Laboratory of Biotechnology (Government Gazette, 66A, 2001) is located within the School of Chemical Engineering (Sector IV: Process Analysis and Plant Design) of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA).

The academic staff of the Laboratory covers the teaching of the following courses:

• Principles of Cell Biology and Biochemistry (5th semester, Ch.E.)
• Biochemical Engineering (7th semester, Ch.E.)
• Industrial Biotechnology (8th semester, Ch.E.)
• Biomechanics (9th semester, Ch.E.)

The Laboratory also supports the laboratory components of the following courses:

• Industrial Biotechnology (8th semester, Ch.E.)
• Biomechanics (9th semester, Ch.E.)

The research activities of the Laboratory concern the following areas:

1. Biotechnological production of biofuels – Biorefinery

• Saccharification and fermentation of agricultural residues for the production of second-generation biofuels
• Production of biopolymers and bioactive compounds from residual biomass and industrial by-products
• Utilization of lignocellulosic biomass for the production of high added-value products from microalgae
• Use of olive mill wastewater for microbial production of industrial enzymes and nutraceutical products

2. Biocatalysis

• Discovery and production of new recombinant biocatalysts for the modification of plant cell walls
• Study of the function/structure of novel biocatalysts and catalytic mechanisms on natural substrates
• Synthesis/modification of bioactive compounds and biologically derived polymers
• Modification of textiles and packaging materials
• Enzymatic synthesis of food additives (prebiotics)
• Synthesis of high added-value products in non-conventional systems

3. Environmental Biotechnology – Bioremediation

• Discovery of novel marine biocatalysts for degradation/removal of pollutants (halogenated, aromatic, etc.)
• Design of biodegradation/removal processes using immobilized or free cells [design of bioreactors (CSTR, PBR) and study of their operation]
• Development and evaluation of innovative biocatalysts and processes for effective desulfurization of petroleum fractions

4. Bioinformatics – Metabolic Engineering

• Metabolic engineering (flux analysis, metabolic control analysis, use of enzymatic kinetics data at the systems level)
• Functional (meta)genomics and transcriptomics (interpretation of microarray experiments, analysis of next-generation DNA & RNA sequencing data, promoter analysis)
• Pathway analysis (automated construction of metabolic and signaling pathways)

Laboratory Infrastructure

The Biotechnology Laboratory covers an area of approximately 400 m², with infrastructure ranging from genome analysis and heterologous gene expression of interest, to pilot-scale production of final products, including downstream isolation processes. Specifically, it is equipped with: (a) computational resources including: i) 2 servers each comprising 64 CPUs, 512 GB RAM, and ~7 TB disk capacity, ii) 1 server comprising 64 CPUs, 256 GB RAM, and ~500 GB disk capacity, (b) molecular biology facilities (PCR, electrophoresis and electroporation units, ultrasonic cell disruptors), (c) facilities for small-scale cultivation of bacteria, yeasts, fungi, and