Team
Marc F. Schetelig | Professor
Justus-Liebig-University Gießen, Germany
Marc F. Schetelig is a researcher in the field of molecular biocontrol and gene editing. He is interested in developing environmentally friendly methods to control invasive fruit pests such as Drosophila suzukii, Medfly, and Aedes aegypti. In this context, he is improving the sterile insect technique (SIT). His work also focuses on the risk assessment of transgenic insects, the development of molecular biology systems to stabilise transgenes, and the comparison of different technologies, including CRISPR-Cas gene editing.
Nikos Papadopoulos | Professor
University of Thessaly, Greece
Nikos T. Papadopoulos is a Professor of Applied Entomology and Director of the Laboratory of Entomology and Agricultural Zoology at the University of Thessaly. His lab is active in the field of life-history evolution, insect ecology, behavior, and management with a focus on fruit flies of the family Tephritidae. A significant portion of his recent research involves the management of fruit flies using environmentally friendly tactics such as the release of sterile insects.
Francesca Scolari | Researcher
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy
Francesca Scolari is a biologist. Her research activity aims to understand the genomic, molecular, and physiological bases of insect reproductive biology relevant to agriculture and public health. Her work focuses on the study of reproduction, olfaction, and interactions with endosymbionts to develop new tools for environmentally-friendly pest control. For REACT, Francesca focuses on establishing a metabolomics pipeline to identify male-quality markers for improved fruit fly mass-rearing.
Marc De Meyer | Researcher
Royal Museum for Central Africa, Belgium
Marc De Meyer is an entomologist with a PhD in zoology. He joined the Royal Museum of Central Africa (RMCA) in Tervuren in Belgium in 1988 and heads the invertebrate unit. Also, he is deputy head of the Department of African Biology, coordinator of the Joint Experimental Molecular Unit (JEMU) and the BopCo Unit (Barcoding Facility of Tissues and Organisms of Policy Concern). His area of expertise is the taxonomy, systematics, and phylogeny of the bipterans with emphasis on specific African groups, including the tephritid fruit flies.
Yafit Cohen | Researcher
Agricultural Research Organisation, Israel
Yafit Cohen is a senior research scientist at the Institute of Agricultural Engineering at ARO since 2003. She is an adjunct faculty at the Faculty of Agriculture, Hebrew University, and teaches GIS with focus on precision agriculture. She possesses a BA and a PhD in geography from Bar-Ilan University. One of her scientific interest is remote-sensing for precision agriculture and spatio-temporal analysis of insect in agricultural environments like Medfly and Red-palm-weevil. She is leading long-term studies to improve fruit flies monitoring and control including the development of automatic traps and spatial decision support systems for Medfly control.
Kostas Mathiopoulos | Professor
University of Thessaly, Greece
Kostas Mathiopoulos is Professor of Molecular Biology and Director of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Genomics at the University of Thesally. Current research interests of his team include engineering biology and toehold switches, RNAi-based insecticides, the structure, function, and evolution of the Tephritid Y chromosome, genetic sexing strains, olfactory, gustatory, and reproduction systems, and the regulatory role of long non-coding RNAs.
George Tsiamis | Professor
University of Patras, Greece
Professor George Tsiamis holds a position in Environmental Microbiology at the Department of Sustainable Agriculture of the University of Patras. He attained his MSc in Plant Protection from the University of Reading, UK, and his PhD in Molecular Microbiology from the University of London, UK. His research focuses on: (a) the microbial diversity in extreme environments through -omic technologies and single cell genomics, (b) accessing the metabolic diversity of microorganisms through genome sequencing, (c) designing and developing new tools for the study of bacterial diversity, and (d) host-microbe interactions with an emphasis on symbiotic associations through genetic, molecular, cellular, biochemical and genomic approaches.
Antonios Avgoustinos | Researcher
ELGO-DIMITRA, Greece
Dr. Antonios Avgoustinos, a geneticist and entomologist, is a Senior Researcher at the Department of Plant Protection in Patras (Institute of Industrial and Forage Crops, ELGO-DIMITRA, Greece). He attained his PhD in Genetics from the University of Patras. His expertise lies in analysis of insects of agricultural and public health importance in the fields of genetics, molecular biology, and symbiosis. His research group is active in developing, testing or applying methodologies such as the sterile insect technique and the incompatible insect technique that aim to deliver sterility in natural populations of targeted species.
Evelyn Vollmeister | Project Manager
Justus-Liebig-University Gießen, Germany
Evelyn Vollmeister is a project manager and biologist. As a biologist, she worked on host-pathogen interactions in the plant and human field with a focus on RNA-related issues. Her further career focused on scientific project management, e.g. of a priority program. At REACT she is working as project manager and takes care of all administrative issues of the involved partners and the successful completion of the project.
Sam Vanbergen | Researcher
Royal Museum for Central Africa, Belgium
Sam Vanbergen is a biologist researching the mechanisms of fruit fly invasion at the population level. Sam Vanbergen obtains findings through genome sequencing.
Panagiota Koskinioti | Researcher
University of Thessaly, Greece
Panagiota Koskinioti is a biochemist and biotechnologist at the Laboratory of Entomology and Agricultural Zoology, University of Thessaly. Her research interests focus on studying the interaction of insects with bacteria to improve environmentally friendly pest control methods such as the sterile and incompatible insect technique. Their research activities also focus on the development of genetic sex strains to control mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus) and invasive fruit flies.
Pablo Deschepper | Researcher
Royal Museum for Central Africa, Belgium
Pablo Deschepper is a researcher at the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium. Pablo is particularly interested in population genomics of rapidly invading fruit fly pests.
Aruna Manrakhan | Researcher
Citrus Research International, South Africa
Aruna Manrakhan is an entomologist and the co-ordinator of the fruit fly research programme at CRI. Her research is on the biology, ecology and control of insect pests of citrus with a large focus on fruit flies. Her interest is in the development of effective, affordable and sustainable approaches for control of agricultural insect pests. In the REACT project, she is involved the evaluation of socio economic and environmental impacts of SIT-based strategies for control of invasive fruit flies in South Africa which is one of the objectives under Work Package 6.
Gur Pines | Researcher
Agricultural Research Organization, Israel
Gur Pines is a synthetic biologist focusing on the development of CRISPR-based biosensors and genome editing.
Cristina Borghesi | PhD Student
Justus-Liebig-University Gießen, Germany
Cristina Borghesi is a PhD student in the Department of Insect Biotechnology in Crop Protection and a member of the research team on the Mediterranean fruit fly pest. Her scientific interest is in the sustainable management of agricultural pests with a particular focus on sterile insect technology (SIT). At REACT, she is working on the development of a generic sex strain to separate male and female individuals for SIT programs using modern genome editing technologies.
Hélène Delatte | Researcher
CIRAD, Île de La Réunion
Dr. Hélène Delatte (HDR) is a researcher in CIRAD's PVBMT unit, based in the French overseas territory of Réunion. Her research focuses on understanding the evolutionary and ecological processes of invasion of tropical crop pests and how to prevent future invasions. Her models of interest are mainly focused on tropical pests of the family Tephritidae. She has supervised more than 15 PhD students and several MSc students, published more than 120 scientific papers and a book on the diversity of frugivorous fruit flies and their host plants. She is currently Head of the Ecology Department in her research unit.
Georgia Papadogiorgou | PhD Student
University of Thessaly, Greece
Georgia Papadogiorgou is a member of the scientific team of the Laboratory of Entomology and Agricultural Zoology at the University of Thessaly since 2015. She completed her MSc thesis on the sexual behavior of the Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata. Now she is studying towards a PhD at the University of Thessaly, focusing on the ecology of medfly under different stress conditions. From 2017 to 2019 she participated in a research program (Life–Biodelear) dealing with the management of fruit flies with the implementation of precision agriculture practices, as well as the mass trapping method with the use of innovative and environmentally friendly attractants. Also, she was involved in the research project FF-IPM from 2019 to 2022.
Panagiota Stathopoulou | Researcher
University of Patras, Greece
Panagiota Stathopoulou received her first degree in Biology from the University of Athens, and completed her PhD in Microbial Biotechnology at the same University. Her main research interests include: the study of the microbial diversity in various environments/hosts using –omic technologies, bioprospecting for novel microbial industrial enzymes from extreme environments, and research on hydrolytic enzymes (production, purification, biochemical characterization and biotechnological applications).
Tecla Aramini | Researcher
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy
Tecla Aramini obtained her Master’s degree in Molecular Biotechnology and Bioinformatics at the University of Milan (Italy) and is a research fellow at the Institute of Molecular Bioimaging and Physiology of the Italian National Research Council (IBFM-CNR). She is interested in areas ranging from diseases such as cancer to environmental concerns like plastic pollution. Tecla is a member of the CNR team and dedicates her efforts to developing protocols for metabolite extraction from different organs isolated from the tephritid species Ceratitis capitata, Bactrocera dorsalis and Bactrocera zonata. In her analyses, she uses mass spectrometry with the final goal to pinpoint potential male quality markers in the target species.
Andrea Moyano | Researcher
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy
Andrea Moyano is a biologist with a focus on ecology, life strategies, and the sexual behaviour of various native and exotic fruit fly species in the northwest of Argentina. During her time as a PhD student, she specifically delved into those species recognized as agricultural pests. Her scientific pursuits revolve around unraveling the intricacies of fruit fly sexual behaviour, as well as comprehending the physiological and molecular pathways that underlie them.
Within the REACT project, she works at generating and analyzing metabolomes to identify potential new markers of male quality for SIT mass-rearing.
Roswitha A. Aumann | Researcher
Justus-Liebig-University Gießen, Germany
Roswitha Aumann studied Agricultural Sciences and Agrobiotechnology, holds a PhD in Insectbiotechnology and works currently as a PostDoc in the team of Prof. Schetelig at the Justus-Liebig-University in Germany. She is interested in improving environmentally friendly pest control methods like SIT using CRIPSR-Cas9 based genome engineering techniques. At REACT, she is working on the development of neo-classical genetic sexing strains.
Kandas Cloete | Analyst & Researcher
Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP) and Citrus Research International (CRI), South Africa
Kandas is a senior analyst at BFAP and works primarily on export orientated, perennial horticultural crops. Her focus includes farm level modelling, impact quantification at farm and industry level and trend analysis throughout the value chain. Since joining BFAP in 2018, her focus is on informing strategic decision making in the fruit, nut and wine industries. Her secondment to CRI is directly linked to the REACT project’s work package 6, which has the objective to evaluate the socio economic and environmental impacts of SIT-based tools and strategies for eradication of invasive FF in South Africa by making use of a cost-benefit analysis approach.
Dimitris Rallis | Researcher
University of Thessaly, Greece
Dimitris Rallis holds a degree in Biochemistry and Biotechnology with post-graduate studies on advanced experimental and computational biosciences. He is currently working as a PhD student at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Genomics at the University of Thessaly. His research interests are focused on deciphering the evolution, content and structure of sex chromosomes, particularly of the sex-limited Y, within the Tephritidae family of insects. His approach involves a synergy of molecular techniques with the creation of innovative computational tools and extensive manual curation of the computational results.
Giovanni Petrucci | Researcher
Justus-Liebig-University Gießen, Germany
Giovanni Petrucci is a PhD student from the University of Giessen at the Department of Insect Biotechnology in Plant Protection. His research interests are focused on applied entomological research, in particular on molecular biology research aimed for the improvement of the sterile insect technique (SIT). For the REACT project, he is working on the development of new genetic sexing strains for the oriental fruit fly Bactrocera dorsalis.
Michael Ben-Yosef | Researcher
Agricultural Research Organization, Israel
Michael Ben-Yosef is a research entomologist at the Institute of Plant Protection, ARO, focusing on ecophysiology of fruit flies. Ofmain interest are interaction with the microbiome and their contribution to insect success in agroecosystems. At REACT, Michael is characterizing factors that govern the interspecific competition between larvae of native and invasive fruit fly species.
Mai Hamburg | Researcher
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israe
Mai Hamburg is an M.Sc. student at the Department of Entomology in the Faculty of Agriculture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a member of the Insect Physiology Group at the ARO-Volcani Institute. For the REACT project, she works on mechanisms that mediate interspecific competition between the invasive Peach fruit fly (Bactrocera zonata) and the Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata) at the larval stage.
Vasilis G. Rodovitis | PhD Student
University of Thessaly, Greece
Vasilis Rodovitis is an entomologist and a member of the scientific team of the Laboratory of Entomology and Agrozoology at the University of Thessaly since January 2016. His scientific interests are biology, ecology and especially behavior and management of insect pests in orchard crops. Currently, Vasilis is working as a PhD student on the overwintering ability, distribution, and interspecific competition of fruit flies in Europe.
Philippos Papathanos | Researcher
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Philippos Papathanos, a PhD holder, who developed the first functional gene drive designs for malaria mosquito control. He later explored genetic engineering of insects, working at Caltech and the University of Perugia. In 2018, he established the Papathanos Lab at Hebrew University, focusing on engineering insect biology to build new tools for the genetic control of insect populations. This is done by combining principles of synthetic biology and computational genetics, with the aim to build tools that can revolutionize the way human societies can sustainably tackle harmful insects.
Gerasimos Giannatos | PhD student
University of Patras, Greece/ELGO-DIMITRA, Greece
Gerasimos Giannatos is an agronomist with MSc. from the University of Thessaly. He is a member of the research team of Entomology in the Department of Plant Protection Patras (ELGO-DIMITRA, Greece). In the frame of REACT, Gerasimos is working on the standardization of parts of the rearing of the genetic sexing strains of the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata , including Quality Control, development and testing of enhanced diets, and development of an operational strategy to produce enhanced medfly males of high quality. His broader scientific interests include insect rearing for plant protection and insects’ applications in circular economy.
Eleni Kotsadam | PhD student
University of Patras, Greece/ELGO-DIMITRA, Greece
Eleni Kotsadam is a biologist with MSc in Applied Ecology - Management of Ecosystems and Biological Resources from University of Patras. She is a member of the research team of Entomology in the Department of Plant Protection Patras (ELGO-DIMITRA, Greece) In the frame of REACT, Eleni is working on the evaluation of genetic sexing strains of the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (including quality control and genetic stability). Her research interests focus in the artificially generated symbiosis of medfly with the Wolbachia bacterium, aiming to understand both fundamental biological aspects of this symbiosis and its possible utilization as a pest control strategy to induce sterility in natural populations.
Hafsi Abir | Researcher
CIRAD, La Réunion
Hafsi Abir is a postdoctoral researcher at CIRAD in Saint-Pierre, La Réunion. Her research focuses on community ecology and evolutionary biology, with a specific interest in the mechanisms of insect adaptation to climate change and the dynamics of biological invasions. Within the REACT project, she investigates the competitive performance of B. dorsalis in relation to the native polyphagous species C. capitata, under varying temperatures and host fruits. This includes examining the influence of gut microbiota on the competition outcomes (Project T2.2: a, b). Additionally, under Project T2.3 (a, b), Hafsi assess the susceptibility of EU-endemic wild fruits as hosts for both B. dorsalis and B. zonata under laboratory conditions. Lastly, she is conducting a meta-analysis of the direct effects of B. zonata and B. dorsalis invasions on the local community of frugivorous arthropods (Project T2.4).
Angela Meccariello | Researcher
Imperial College, United Kingdom
Angela Meccariello is an expert in the molecular biology of the Tephritid. She has been the lead author of a study that achieved the identification of the Tephritid male determining factor. She has pioneered both DNA-free genome-editing as well as the endogenous use of CRISPR in the medfly. She also pioneered the first successful steps towards the long-elusive goal of creating a Driving Sex Conversion for genetic control of the medfly population. Her work is focused on the development of efficient genetic pest control approaches that have the potential for transferability to other Tephritid species using medfly as model insect. At REACT she is using CRISPR/Cas9 technology to induce homology-directed repair-based knock-ins to engineer the medfly Y chromosome.
Serafima Davydova | PhD Student
Imperial College, United Kingdom
Serafima Davydova is a PhD student at the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London. She works on the implementation of varied genetically engineered approaches in the Mediterranean fruit fly (medfly) for further use in other Tephritid pests. Primarily these strategies aim to improve the Sterile Insect Technique for easier agricultural pest control. Within the REACT project Serafima is working towards the generation of a novel Y-chromosome-linked GSS in the medfly.
Jonathan Mann | Research Technician
Imperial College, United Kingdom
Jonathan Mann has a master's degree in Biochemistry and Genetics. He joined the Meccariello laboratory as a research technician in early 2023. He has always been very passionate about entomology and working with Dr Meccariello on the REACT project has allowed him to pursue his interests full time in a high pace research environment. Within the REACT project, he is primarily involved in medfly colony rearing, injections and genetic crosses.
Lucas Prates | PhD Student
Justus-Liebig-University Gießen, Germany
Lucas Prates is a chemical engineer and holds an MA degree in Agricultural Engineering from the Universidade Federal de Viçosa (Brazil). He has research experience in environmentally friendly methods to control insect pests in stored grain and chromatographic methods to detect pesticide residues in agricultural products. At REACT, Lucas is applying molecular techniques to help develop new genetic strains for sexing tephritids.
Michael Anranter | Communication Expert
Oikoplus GmbH, Austria
Michael Anranter is a political scientist and cultural and social anthropologist. His work focuses on the interconnections of human and non-human beings and infrastructures. In particular, he focuses on how trust and mistrust are mediated through transportation infrastructures. In the context of REACT, Michael acts as a communications expert for Work Package 7 Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation. He draws on many years of experience in the communication of EU-funded research projects.
Thomas Stollenwerk | Communication Expert
Oikoplus GmbH, Austria
Thomas Stollenwerk is a science communication professional supporting the REACT partnership in its dissemination and outreach activities. As a studied political scientist he has worked as a creative strategist in marketing and political campaigning before turning to journalism. As former editor-in-chief of Biorama Magazine he has begun working on making research and science accessible to wider audiences. As co-founder and managing partner of Oikoplus GmbH in Vienna he develops communication strategies and participatory formats for science and innovation projects.
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