Education

03/2019-present

Ph.D. in Biotechnology

National Technical University of Athens (NTUA)

School of Chemical Engineering

Biotechnology Laboratory

Ph.D. Thesis: Improvement of enzyme systems for the efficient utilization of lignocellulosic biomass

12/2013-10/2018

Diploma in Chemical Engineering (8,82/10)

National Technical University of Athens

School of Chemical Engineering

Diploma Thesis: Utilization of enzymatic systems of Basidiomycetes in applications of biodegradation

Languages

Greek (Native speaker)

English (Level C2)

German (Level Β2)

Spanish (Intermediate level)

Work Experience

09/2017-10/2017

Intern

General Chemical State Laboratory

Analysis of packaging materials, inorganic materials, industrial products, metal and plastic materials using instrumental analysis techniques

Publications

4. Nikolaivits E. Pentari C., Kosinas C., Feiler C.G., Spiliopoulou M., Weiss M.S., Dimarogona* M., Topakas* E. (2021). Unique features of the bifunctional GH30 from Thermothelomyces thermophila revealed by structural and mutational studies. Carbohydrate Research, 273, 118553; doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2021.118553.

3. Zerva A., Pentari C., Termentzi A., America A.H.P., Zouraris D., Bhattacharya K.S., Karantonis A., Zervakis G.I., Topakas* E. (2021). Discovery of two novel laccase-like multicopper oxidases from Pleurotus citrinopileatus and their application in phenolic oligomer synthesis. Biotechnology for Biofuels, 14:83; doi: 10.1186/s13068-021-01937-7.

2. Zerva A., Pentari C., Topakas E., (2020) “Crosslinked Enzyme Aggregates (CLEAs) of Laccases from Pleurotus citrinopileatus Induced in Olive Oil Mill Wastewater (OOMW)”, Molecules, 25, 2221; doi:10.3390/molecules25092221

1. Zerva A., Pentari C., Grisel S., Berrin J.G., Topakas E., (2020) “A new synergistic relationship between xylan-active LPMO and xylobiohydrolase to tackle recalcitrant xylan”, Biotechnol Biofuels 13:142, https://doi.org/10.1186/s13068-020-01777-x

National Conferences

1. C. Pentari, A. Zerva, D. Zouraris, A. Karantonis, E. Topakas, “Study of the synthetic potential of two novel laccases PcLac1 και PcLac2 from the Basidiomycete Pleurotus citrinopileatus”, 12th Panhellenic Scientific Conference of Chemical Engineering (Athens, Greece 2019)

Praktical Skills

HPLC analysis. HPAEC analysis, Spectrophotometric sugar quantification, Agarose and SDS-PAGE electrophoreses, PCR mutagenesis, Gene cloning, Cell growth and cultivation methods, Heterologous enzyme production and purification, Enzyme characterization (substrate specificity, optimal activity conditions), Analysis of kinetic data, Enzyme immobilization in Cross-Linked Enzyme Aggregates

Other Skills

Use of the following computer programs:

Matlab, MathCad, Microsoft Office, AspenPlus Software, PyMOL, Comsol Multiphysics, Gepasi