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SOFIA PAPIDA

Ms. Sofia Papida is a conservator of archaeological finds and works of art, museologist and cultural heritage interpreter. She is currently the Head of the Conservation Department at the Ministry of Culture, Ephorate of Antiquities of Athens.

The reason for our communication with Ms. Papida was our need to find a piece of marble for experimental examination. Her contribution was invaluable, as thanks to her knowledge and experience she suggested various alternatives. Initially, she urged us to collect natural stones, texts close to the environment of the monument we are interested in and to work on them. We have therefore learned about this practice, which, as she explained to us, is something that is common when conducting experiments that are in the early stages of testing, while at the same time, in this way, we are 'relieved' of the sampling process, which yields uncertain results and at best little material to examine.

Then, when we proceed with our experiment and get results, she advised us to apply for sampling either to the Ephorate of Antiquities of Athens, i.e. from the monuments of Athens, or to the Ephorate of Antiquities of Patras regarding a monument of their competence. In fact, its full guidance included the relevant hyperlinks and application forms.

Therefore, through our communication with Ms. Papida, we gained useful information regarding the most flexible and direct process of collecting experimental material.

PANAGIOTA PANTZOU

Dr. Panagiota Pantzou is an assistant professor at the Department of History and Archaeology and at the Department of Cultural Environment Management & New Technologies of the University of Patras. She also has the role of editor-in-chief of e-dialogos and scientific advisor of Diadrasis (non-profit organization).

The reason why we approached Dr. Pantzou was our need to get in touch with other fields and try to identify commonalities in the context of examining ancient monuments - i.e. the decay/bioerosion they develop over the centuries - between experimental and a more theoretical examination.

Her rich CV and especially her great willingness to help us and assist in the development of our effort resulted in our cooperation having a catalytic effect on the course of the field of Human Practices. Of decisive importance was the fact that he was not content only to introduce us to partners and colleagues from sectors related to our project, but also communicated our idea, which is the main goal of the field of Human Practices.

DIMITRIS DAMASKOS

Dr. Dimitris Damaskos is Professor and Associate President of the Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Patras. He has studied at the homonymous school of the University of Athens and did his doctoral thesis entitled "Research on Hellenistic cult statues" at the Free University of Berlin. One of his research interests is classical archaeology.

The reason for our communication with Dr. Damaskos was our discussion with Dr. Pantzou, who referred us to several scientists who could contribute with their perspective to our project. Studying his CV, we concluded that it would indeed be interesting to try, through our meeting, to approach our experimental subject on a more theoretical basis, while having the opportunity to receive criticism from an expert in ancient monuments in general.

Although the ancient statues from the excavations are cleaned of soil and damage caused by microorganisms with special tools, Dr. Damaskos found our approach interesting, as he M.ER. CURE could be used either as a cleaner or as a means of protecting cleaned monuments from future damage.

LAURA-MELPOMENI TAPINI

Ms. Laura-Melpomeni Tapini is a conservator of works of art and antiquities. She studied mosaic, stone and fresco conservation (Scuola per il Restauro del Mosaico, Ravenna, Italy) and completed her postgraduate studies with an MA (Hons) in restoration and restoration of historic buildings (University of York, England). We had the pleasure to meet her as coordinator and co-founder of Diadrasis, a non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation, research, promotion and development of cultural heritage.

During our meeting, as coordinator of such an organization, she was able to share her experience and raise issues of a scientific, organizational and business nature. It raised concerns about the evolution of our idea and the audience we wish to address.

We realized that, regardless of the interesting experimental work, we will need to take into account other parameters that are outside our laboratory. It may seem long-term, but it is precisely this deeper motivation that should be sought by someone who studies and wishes to develop a product that will meet the requirements of man and nature in general.

RANIA KORDALI

Ms. Rania Kordali is a conservator of works of art and antiquities, a graduate of the University of West Athens, and holds a master's degree in Materials and Technologies of Cultural Heritage from the University of Peloponnese. We had the pleasure to get in touch with her and get to know her as a partner of Diadrasis' "Simvadizoume" (means “walking together”) program.

Through her experience and her close cooperation with responsible sectors, she had the opportunity to guide us effectively, informing us about departments of institutions that we could contact in order to help us in our research. More specifically, she urged us to approach the Stone Center, which is responsible for researching how to preserve the stone of monuments, archaeological sites and sculptures, studying the nature, properties and causes of stone damage, laboratory and pilot conservation applications, as well as periodically testing these applications.

In this way, once again, we had the opportunity to realize the similarities of marble with other stones and to be able to apply our experiment to alternative materials.

KATIA ANTONOPOULOU

Ms. Katia Antonopoulou is a conservator of antiquities in Patras. Ms. Antonopoulou shared with us that "microorganisms such as mosses, lichens and fungal secretions damage marbles and this is felt by the intense coloration of the marbles (green or gray to black). This deterioration, she said, is amplified by air pollution and chambers. The marbles are cleaned mechanically (pH-neutral soaps) or with some chemicals (desogen), but in addition to destroying their surface, microorganisms come back again (e.g. due to moisture, shady part of a monument, capillary climbing)".

She also mentioned ways to prevent microorganisms for example avoiding moisture, this is achieved by constructing a roof, special grooves where water leaves and by trying better ventilation. Finally, she pointed out that the maintenance of the monument depends on each monument and that conservators do not want to use chemicals because they affect people's health, monuments and the surrounding environment, so they try to wash the marbles a lot to avoid negative consequences.

ALEXANDRA FASOULI

Ms Alexandra Fasouli is Archaeologist and cofounder of Archaeolab project. We had a deeper conversation with her after our educational visit at Archaeolab Patras regarding our project and presented the difficulties we faced during the research and funding process. She got impressed with our project and suggested that we get in touch with antiquities authorities and archaeologists who assist projects like ours.

ALEXANDRA LIANOU

Dr Alexandra Lianou is an Assistant Professor in the division of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, at Biology Department of University of Patras. At the university her educational activities are Undergraduate courses: Microbiology, Applied Microbiology and Postgraduate courses: Microbial Biotechnology. She has bachelor degree in agriculture, at Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Agricultural University of Athens, Greece 2003, she continued her master studies at Department of Animal Sciences, College of Agricultural Sciences, Colorado State University, USA 2006 (M.Sc. thesis: “Listeria monocytogenes strain variation in culture broth and fate in delicatessen meat and poultry products”) and she has done her Ph.D. at Department of Food Science and Technology, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece 2013 (Ph.D. thesis: “Study of the strain variability of the behaviour of Salmonella enterica”). Her research interests focus on Microbiological safety and quality of foods, Quantitative Microbiology, Microbial responses to environmental stress, Microbial interactions, Biofilms. She has published a lot of publications, participated in international conferences, and has written with other researchers book chapters. She offered her valuable help and advice during the project process. She gave us the opportunity to work in her microbiology laboratory at the university and she always answered to our questions. She gave us positive feedback and helped us with microbiological methods. Without her, we wouldn’t have been able to make all the wet lab steps.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to the esteemed Dr Alexandra Lianou for giving us her laboratory space, Unit of Microbiology, Department of Biology, University of Patras, as a basic workplace. Her unwavering support, as well as the appreciation and guidance she provided us during our work in the lab, were invaluable. Her advice and experience helped us take every step of the way with confidence and efficiency. Without her kind support, we would not have been able to progress so successfully in the laboratory.

DIMITRIS HATZINIKOLAOU

Dr Dimitris G. Hatzinikolaou, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology, specializing in Microbial Biotechnology, at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece. His doctoral research focused on "Biosynthesis and mode of action of microbial oxidoreductases." He has served as a reviewer for numerous scientific journals, including the World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology (Springer-Verlag) and The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, among others. Additionally, he has actively participated in several research programs and has held positions as a Scientist/Group Leader in many of them.

Furthermore, he has presented his research extensively at national conferences, with over 50 oral and poster presentations in national research conferences. His current research interests encompass Microbial Biotechnology, including the design and optimization of processes for microbial product production (enzymes and low molecular weight metabolites), bioreactors, and both aerobic and anaerobic processes. He is also involved in Enzymatic Technology, covering biosynthesis, isolation, study, and industrial applications of enzymes. Lastly, he is engaged in Environmental Microbiology, focusing on biological waste treatment and the bioremediation of organic pollutants.

In accordance with the procedures and regulations governing the use of the laboratory facilities of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece, we would like to emphasize that , Dr. Dimitris G. Hatzinikolaou kindly granted us access to the laboratory space in the Microbiology Corridor in the Department of Botany, for the execution of our experiments, along with continuous guidance throughout our experiments.

Dr. Dimitris G. Hatzinikolaou is very experienced and specialized in the field of the experiments we carried out, while his presence and advice proved decisive for the success of our experiments. His willingness to support and guide us has contributed significantly to our educational and scientific experiences.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to Dr. Dimitris G. Hatzinikolaou for his generosity and dedication to our education. His contribution was invaluable and positively influenced the course of our project.

ALEXANDROS SAVVIDIS

Dr Alexandros Savvidis, is a Laboratory Teaching Staff member in the Department of Biology, specializing in the field of Botany, at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece. His doctoral thesis focused on "Investigating the physiology of genetically modified strains of the bacterium Zymomonas mobilis with industrial relevance in closed and open cultivation systems." He has participated in over ten research programs, one of which is the National Program of the Acropolis Monuments Conservation Service of the Ministry of Culture, titled "Studying bacterial diversity on the monuments of the Acropolis: addressing the issue of degradation by microorganisms," from 2006 to 2010.

His primary research interests include Bioreactor fermentations, biomass and ethanol production in continuous flow cultures, and bioreactor modeling and technology. He is also involved in the isolation of environmental strains that produce bioactive compounds and biotechnological products, with characterization of the isolated microorganisms and chemical compounds using HPLC. Additionally, his research involves the study of microbial colonization on Acropolis marbles and the development of methodologies for preventing biodegradation, among other topics.

Dr Alexandros Savvidis is truly a source of inspiration and encouragement in the field of research. He was the man who upgraded our project, initially guiding us through the process of defining standards for isolating microorganisms from marbles, in order to identify them.

His expertise was critical to the successful development of our project. Apart from that, he guided us to speed up the process, due to the limited time period available, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of our peptide against the microorganisms we had identified and isolated from the marbles. His contribution was truly invaluable and helped us make significant progress in our research.

ARETI MOURKA

Dr. Areti Mourka holds a PhD from the Department of Physics of the University of St. Andrews in the UK (2013) and received her Bachelors (2007) and M.Sc. degrees (2009) with distinction from the Department of Physics of the University of Crete in Greece. She is Enterprise Europe Network Hellas Advisor at Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas | PRAXI Network. We met Dr Mourka as at the Bootcamp Match & Develop a startup Patras 4.0., she got excited with our project and thus we arranged a meeting, to take some advice about our fundraising plan and our future steps. Dr Mourka ‘s advice was really helpful for us, as she told us how to approach sponsors properly and she suggested us some companies and foundations that could sponsor our project.