BREAKTHROUGH BIOSENSOR TECHNOLOGIES

Dimitris is an Electronic Engineering graduate from the University of Southampton. His commitment in photonic science led him to the completion of an MSc in Photonics from Imperial College London and a PhD in photonics at the National Technical University of Athens. Dimitris held various research positions developing photonic technologies for telecommunications computer interconnects and bio-applications at the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and more. His passion for innovation in health and medical technologies led him to the founding of bialoom. His technological interests revolve around silicon photonics plasmonics biosensing and point of care diagnostics. Dimitris is an EITHealth alumnus where he was trained in Healthtech innovation and entrepreneurship.

Thanasis is a computer science graduate from Aristotle university of Thessaloniki. He received his Master of Science in networks communication and system architecture from the computer science department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. His diploma thesis focused on the design and experimental characterization of plasmonic waveguides integrated with silicon photonics. To pursue his PhD Thanasis joined the WinPhos research group at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation (CIRI) of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki as a research associate participating in a series of EU funded research projects. Thanasis has been developing silicon photonic and plasmonic based solutions for computer interconnects and biosensing applications for more than 3 years strongly focusing on application-driven R&D. His technological interests include photonic and plasmonic integrated circuits for biosensors and next generation point of care diagnostics.

Serife graduated from University of Bath with an MEng (Hons) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 2015. After graduating, her passion towards improving healthcare led her to become the first Electrical and Electronic Engineer in her department to be offered a funded PhD position in a multidisciplinary research centre: Centre for Sustainable and Circular Technologies (CSCT). As part of CSCT, she did an interdisciplinary PhD towards development of an electrochemical biosensors for microRNA detection and researched in between departments of chemistry, pharmacy and engineering. After finishing her PhD, she took on Scientist position focusing on assay development for industry in UK. She worked for commercial companies such as LumiraDx and Paragraf where she specialized on surface functionalization methodologies for range of detection modes. Serife has joined Bialoom as Senior Scientist and looking forward to sharing her 3 years of experience in biosensors industry to provide solutions for silicon photonics biosensors.

Nic is a biochemist specialising in immunoassay development and trouble-shooting. Both his PhD and postdoctoral work, carried out at Imperial London, involved development of several immunoassays for gastrointestinal hormones. Analytes worked on included Motilin, Glucagon (both pancreatic and entero), Galanin, Growth Hormone Releasing Factor and others. In 1985, he joined Amersham International (lately known as Ortho Clinical Diagnostics) where he helped to develop numerous immunoassays on the Amerlite and Vitros ECi platforms (both of these used enhance chemiluminescence-also introduced the labelled antibody approach in the RIA of FT3 and FT4). He was also responsible for the hand-over of R&D assays to manufacturing and in addition trouble-shooting of new and old assays. Nic published about 100 peer-reviewed papers and chapters in books. He was also involved in drafting the NCCLS guidelines on free thyroxine and also on the panel of experts involved in standardisation of free thyroid hormones. His invention (on immunoassay measurement of free analytes) and actual development of the assays (FT3/FT4 on 3 assay platforms) was responsible for several hundred million pounds of revenue for the company. For his contribution Nic received the prestigious Johnson & Johnson Excellence in Science award. From 2007 until now Nic has been acting as an Immunoasssay consultant helping numerous companies with developing (and help trouble-shoot) immunoassays on a variety of platforms.

George, a biochemist and molecular biologist by training (University of Nottingham, UK), since his PhD studies at Cranfield University, UK has focused on biosensor development due to his keen interest in the interfaces between the biological world and inorganic materials. As a postdoctoral researcher and head of the Bionanotechnology and Nanochemistry Group at the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens (BRFAA), he has been involved in numerous projects aimed towards the development of biosensors based on different signal transduction principles as well as biorecognition molecules, gaining considerable experience and building strong collaborations with key players in this interdisciplinary field. Throughout his research career, George has had the opportunity to put forward innovative solutions for challenging issues in the field of biochemical assay development and surface functionalization as well as their integration into biosensing platforms and prototyping of novel Lab-on-Chip devices. Since 2020, George is leading assay development at bialoom, seeking to combine its groundbreaking sensing platform with advanced (bio)chemical modification techniques.

Mahmoud Elrabiaay received his B.Sc. degree in electronics and communications engineering from Arab Academy for since and technology, Alexandria, Egypt, in 2012. His diploma and M.Sc. degrees are in integrated optical memories and storage from Alexandria university. In his M.Sc. study, he designed and built integrated optical memories using photonic crystals, liquid crystals, and silicon photonics. Out of his work, he published 3 journal papers in the prestigious Scientific Reports (Springer Nature) and Journal of Lightwave Technology. He contributed significantly to the National Alliance in photonics entitled “Knowledge and Technology Alliance (KTA)” supported by the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (ASRT), Egypt. He has some interests in Nano-fabrication, digital signal processing, energy harvesting devices, and machine learning. Since 2021 Mahmoud holds the role of Photonics Engineer at bialoom leading PIC design and numerical simulation activities.

Christia graduated from the University of Cyprus with a Physics degree. Her interest in human health led Christia to choose the master’s program in Biomedical Engineering, of the Cyprus University of Technology, as her next step. The simulation of the performance of optic- fibers, indented to be used as a medical tool, is the object of study of her thesis. Different designs and materials are some of the factors that are taken into consideration. Since 2021 Christia holds the role of Bioengineer at bialoom developing and testing the company’s biosensing systems.

Panayiotis is a Mechanical Engineer with PhD in Manufacturing Systems and AI. He has past experience in product testing, certification and Quality management with international multi-million sales of scientific and industrial instrumentation. He has over 20 years experience in the development of disruptive products and managed more than 100 R&D and Industry projects with budgets exceeding 100million Euro. He is the founder and CEO of CyRIC the certified Business Innovation Center (BIC) of Cyprus and Gravity Ventures, a venture building incubator based in Nicosia. His expertise extends from creation of business models for commercialization and investments for early stage Startups and Scale-ups. He is president of the Cyprus Association of Research and Innovation Enterprises (CARIE), member of the Cyprus Business Angels Network (CyBAN), member of the BoD, of the European Business Network (EBN), the Nicosia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI), the Research Promotion Foundation (RPF) and the Cyprus Academic and Research Network (CyNE).