Nikos Oikonomakos award

A fund has been set to raise money for the "Nikos Oikonomakos" award for the best poster presentation by a postgraduate student in Structural Biology at a Conference of The Hellenic Crystallographic Association. 

The "Nikos Oikonomakos" prize has been awarded in

2023: 11th International Conference of the Hellenic Crystallographic Association, 20-22 October, Municipal Art Gallery - G.I. Katsigras Museum of Larissa, to

• Ms. Evgenia Politi, Laboratory of Genetics, Department of Biotechnology, Agricultural University of Athens, for her poster presentation: Expression, Purification and Crystallization of Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase Phosphatase 7 (MKP7), E. Politi, A. Papakyriakou, M. Zouridakis and P. Giastas

• Ms. Eleanna Christodoulou, Institute of Chemical Biology, National Hellenic Research Foundation & Department of Pharmacy, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, for her poster presentation: The structure of a novel Odorant Binding Protein of Anopheles gambiae in complex with ORco effectors, E. Christodoulou, E. Stamati, Κ. Tsitsanou, G. Kontopidis and S. Zographos

• Ms. Anastasia Tsagkarakou, Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, University of Thessaly, for her poster presentation: Strong Binding of C-Glycosylic 1,2-Thiodisaccharides to the Carbohydrate Recognition Domain of Galectin-3 and Galectin-8N, A. Tsagkarakou, G. Stravodimos, G. Kontopidis and D. Leonidas

•  Mr. Dionysios-Ermis Geladas, Department of Chemistry, University of Crete, for his poster presentation: 2D Crystal Structure of PHB Granule Proteins in Pseudomonas sp. phDV1 , D.E. Geladas and G.Tsiotis

2021: 10th International Conference of the Hellenic Crystallographic Association, 15-17 October, NCSR “Demokritos”, Athens, to

• Mr. Symeon Koulas, Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, University of Thessaly, for his poster presentation: Crystal structure of plastidial potato starch phosphorylase (L-PSP) at 2.2 Å resolution, S. Koulas, E. Kyriakis, A. Tsagkarakou, G. Stravodimos and D. Leonidas (1st Prize)

• Mr. Constantinos Kosinas, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, for his poster presentation: Combining challenging crystallographic methods for the structural determination of esterase TtCE16 from Thermothelomyces thermophile, C. Kosinas, C. Pentari, A. Zerva, E. Topakas and M. Dimarogona (2nd Prize)

• Mr. Alexandros Valmas, Department of Biology, University of Patras for his poster presentation: Insulin polymorphism induced by polyphenols: new crystal forms and advances in macromolecular powder diffraction, A. Valmas, D. P. Triandafillidis, M. Spiliopoulou, F. Gozzo, M. Reinle-Schmitt, A. Fitch, D. Beckers, T. Degen, J. Wollenhaupt, M. S. Weiss and I. Margiolaki (3rd Prize) 

2018: 9th International Conference of the Hellenic Crystallographic Association, 5-7 October, Conference and Cultural Center,  University of Patras to

• Ms. Panagiota Liggri, Institute of Biology, Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Biotecnhology, National Hellenic Research Foundation & Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, University of Thessaly, for her poster presentation: X-ray crystal structure and binding studies of the Odorant Binding Protein 5 from the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae, Panagiota G.V. Liggri, Katerina E. Tsitsanou, Francesca Saitta, Christina E. Drakou, Kostas Iatrou, Dimitrios Fessas, Spyros E. Zographos (1st Prize)

• Ms. Athena Andreou, Department of Biotechnology, Agricultural University of Athens, for her poster presentation: Cloning, Expression, Crystallization and Structure Determination of the Putative Polysaccharide Deacetylase Ba0331, Athena Andreou, Petros Giastas, Sofia Arnaouteli, Mary Tzanodaskalaki, Socrates J. Tzartos, Kostas Bethanis, Vassilis Bouriotis, Elias E. Eliopoulos (2nd Prize-shared)

• Mr. Anthony Bougas, Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, University of Patras, for his poster presentation: High-resolution crystal structures of ribosome-bound chloramphenicol and erythromycin provide the ultimate basis for their competition, Maxim S. Svetlov, Anthony Bougas, Elena Plessa , George P. Dinos, Yury S. Polikanov (2nd Prize-shared) 

•  Mr. Symeon Koulas and Ms. Anastasia Tsagkarakou (equal contribution), Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, University of Thessaly for their poster presentation: Structure based design of glucose analogues to inhibit glycogen phosphorylase, a pharmaceutical target for diabetes type 2,  Symeon M. Koulas, Anastasia S. Tsagkarakou, Efthimios Kyriakis, George A. Stravodimos, Vassiliki T. Skamnaki, Demetres. D. Leonidas (Honorable mention)

• Mr. Dimitrios Mitsikas, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace, for his poster presentation: Propensities of Asn-Gly heptapeptides to form β-turn structures: a Molecular Dynamics simulation approach, Dimitrios A. Mitsikas, Nicholas M. Glykos (Honorable mention)

• Mr. Aristeidis Ntoukas, Department of Pharmacy, University of Patras, for his poster presentation: Random mutagenesis of protein coding genes for optimization of their expression, Aristeidis Ntoukas, Foteini Fotopoulou, Evangelia Konstantinou, Athanasios Drosos, George Lagoumintzis, Athanasios Niarchos, Georgios A. Spyroulias, Konstantinos Poulas (Honorable mention)

2016: HeCrA-HSCBB16: Joint International Conference of the Hellenic Crystallographic Association and the Hellenic Society for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, 7-9 October, Agricultural University of Athens to

•  Ms. Anthi Mettou, Department of Biochemistry, Veterinary School, University of Thessaly, Karditsa, Greece, for her presentation: Discovery of Small Molecule Inhibitors of TNF-a and Aqueous Solubility Enhancement for Biological and Crystallographic Assays, A. Mettou, P. Alexiou, F. Liepouri, A. Maranti, A. Strongilos, A. Papakyriakou, C. Papaneophytou, E. Ntougkos, K. Tsiliouka, E. Douni, G. Kollias, E. Couladouros, E. Eliopoulos, J.L. Ferrer, G. Kontopidis

2014: Current Trends in Structural Biology & the 7th International Conference of the Hellenic Crystallographic Association, 19-21 September, FORTH, Crete to

• Mr. Nikolaos Louros,   Department of Cell Biology and Biophysics, Faculty of Biology, University of Athens, for his poster presentation: An “aggregation prone” peptide segment of the immunoglobulin light chain κ4 and its contribution to AL amyloidosis,  Nikolaos N. Louros, Paraskevi L. Tsiolaki, Vassiliki A. Iconomidou, Stavros J. Hamodrakas.

• Ms. Vicky Tsirkone, Laboratory for Biocrystallography, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Leuven, Belgium, for her oral presentation: Structural studies on transportin-SR2, the nuclear import factor of HIV integrase, Vicky G. Tsirkone, Alex Shkumatov, Stephen D. Weeks, Frauke Christ, Zeger Debyser, Sergei and V. Strelkov. 

2012: The 6th Conference of the Hellenic Crystallographic Association, 28-29 September, University of Athens, Athens to

•  Mr. V. Kargas, Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, Department of Biology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens for his poster presentation: Structural studies on the effect of non-synonymous polymorphisms in human melanocortin-1 receptor involved in health and disease, V. Kargas, N. Papandreou, P. Bagos, S.J. Hamodrakas.

• Ms. Vassiliki Peppa Laboratory of Structural and Functional Biochemistry, Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, University of Thessaly for her presentation: The crystal structure of Scleroium rolfsii lectin variants with fine carbohydrate specificity, A.L. Kantsadi, V. Peppa, V.T. Skamnaki, S.E. Zographos, S.R. Inamdar, B.M. Swamy, and D.D. Leonidas.

2010: The 5th Conference of the Hellenic Crystallographic Association, 24-25 September, University of Thessaly, Larissa to

• Mr. Elias Christoforidis, Department of Science, Physics Laboratory,Agricultural University of Athens for his presentation: Crystal Structure of the Cyclophilin-A enzyme from azotobacter vineladii, E. Christoforides, M. Dimou, P. Katinakis, K. Bethanis and M. Karpusas

• Ms. Christina Drakou Institute of Organic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, National Hellenic Research Foundation, for her presentation: AgamOBP1 is a molecular target for the development of novel incest repellents, K.E. Tsitsanou, C.E. Drakou, A. Thiraiou, E. Eliopoulos, K. Iatrou and S.E. Zographos. 

2008: The 4th Conference of the Hellenic Crystallographic Association, 26-27 September, NHRF, Athens to

• Mr. Nikolaos Mitakidis Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace for his presentation: A Glutathione S-transferase from the malaria vector Anopheles dirus: Crystallographic analysis and structure solution of co-crystals with the organophosphoric insecticide Temephos. Ν. Mitakidis, M.J.I. Paine, J. Vontas, P.A. Tucker and B. Agianian. 

Donate: This fund is handled by a committee consisting of the President of The Hellenic Crystallographic Association (currently Dr Spyros Zographos), Prof. Socrates J. Tzartos and Dr. Spyros E. Zographos

Anyone who wishes to donate towards this fund please get in contact with any member of the above committee.

People or organizations who have already donated towards this award:

HeCrA, Dr. I. Mavridis, Structural Biology and Chemistry Group, NHRF, Dr. A.C. Papageorgiou, Dr. S.J. Tzartos, Dr. S.J. Tzartos' Laboratory, Pasteur Institute, Dr. K. Petratos, Dr. N. Papandreou, Prof. A. Giannis, Prof. A. Hountas, Dr. K. Poulas, Ms. D. Louka