A workshop with the participation of the Foundation for Research and Technology (FORTH) and all the companies comprising the Efthymiadis Agrotechnology Group was held with great success in Heraklion, Crete, on the subject of : "The prospects for the exploitation of research results in the field of agri-food through the collaboration between the Foundation for Research and Technology (FORTH) and the Efthymiadis Agrotechnology Group"

The VISORSURF research project, coordinated by the Foundation for Research and Technology and funded by the EU, aims to produce a first-of-its kind material, the HyperSurface, which can sense electromagnetic waves impinging upon it and alter them in ways dictated by software.

Lasers have become a common feature of everyday life, from laser pointers to laser engraved iPhones and mass-produced laser etched articles in all shapes, sizes and materials. The power of lasers has multiplied many times and they now have sufficient energy to cut and weld thick steel as used in heavy manufacturing.

The Institute of Computer Science (ICS) of the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH) and the Medical School of the University of Crete (UOC) participated in the first HACKING HEALTH HACKATHON in Athens and won the first prize, accompanied by 2,000 euros and the opportunity to participate in the Digital Transformation Programme of Roche Diagnostics Hellas.

The findings of the study, published today in the premier international scientific journal Nature Neuroscience, reveal a novel molecular mechanism underlying the beneficial effects of mitophagy, the cellular process of mitochondria recycling, against the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease. IMBB Researchers, Dr. Konstantinos Palikaras and Dr. Nektarios Tavernarakis (Professor at the Medical School, University of Crete, and Chairman of the Board at FORTH) in collaboration with the team of Prof. Vilhem Bohr at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) of the National Institutes of Health, (NIH) in Baltimore, USA, together with Dr. Evandro Fang at the University of Oslo and the Akershus University Hospital, Lørenskog, Norway, demonstrated that mitophagy is impaired inAlzheimer’s disease and that its pharmacological stimulation reverses the disease’s pathological features, including cognitive deficits.

The laboratories of Dr. Attila Losonczy (http://www.losonczylab.org/) at Columbia University in New York and Dr.Yiota Poirazi (www.dendrites.gr) at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB) of FORTH, joined forces in order to explain how neurons flexibly lay down or recall memories. The study, which was recently published in the scientific journal Neuron, is the first to provide visual evidence that a particular type of neurons –the so called VIP interneurons- makes this flexibility possible.