Dr Cleanthes Israilides. Basic degree in Agriculture from the Aristotelian
University of Thessaloniki. Master of Science in Marine Microbiology and PhD in Industrial Microbiology from the University of Oregon (1976, 1979). Post doc at M.I.T., at the Universities of Kent and Nottingham U.K. as well as at the University of Miami, U.S.A. Researcher at the National Research Foundation and later at the National Agricultural Research Foundation (NAGREF) where he is currently Head of the Biotechnoloy Laboratory. During 2003-2005 Dr Israilides was the Director of the Institute of Biotechnology of NAGREF. He has taught in many universities in Greece and abroad. During the last ten years he is teaching Biotechnology courses as a visiting professor at the University of Nottingham, U.K. and at the School of Pharmacy of the University of Athens. He has served as a reviewer in many national and international scientific journals and as an evaluator in Framecork Programmes of the EU. His research interests are in Food Biotechnology, Fermentation Technology, production of novel foods and products of high added value from agro industrial by-products, study of neutraceuticals and functional foods with immonomodulating and therapeutic properties. Member of many scientific and professional societies, he has published more than 100 scientific papers in international and national journals and conferences. He is also the major inventor of an American patent, in novel feed production and of a Greek patent dealing with the production of a novel neutraceutical / functional food from the medicinal mushroom Lentinula edodes. During the last years he has research interests in Phytotherapy and he has received the diploma in Phytotherapy from the Institute de Phytotherapie International (IPI) in Brussels.