Volos, Greece, 04 Sep. 2017 – University of Thessaly was selected to host a Greek Diaspora scholar from the United States to work on a collaborative project on the microbial diversity of Greek geothermal springs. Kostas Kormas will lead the project, together with Kostas Konstantinidis, a Fellow from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanata, USA.
The proposed activity aims at bringing together Drs. K. Kormas (host Institution, University of Thessaly) and K. Konstantinidis (Georgia Institute of Technology). Their joint collaborative research will focus on the long-term structural and functional diversity of microbial communities in Greek terrestrial thermal springs. The aim of this work will be to test the hypothesis of whether terrestrial thermal springs host rather stable microbial communities over time, in contrast to the seasonally-affected terrestrial and aquatic microbial communities. Finally, through the application of multi-omics technologies, we will reveal the existence of genes that encode microbial biomolecules with potential biotechnological applications. The projected started in June 2017 and its first results are expected at the beginning of 2018.
Please see attached document for further details