Alexandros Tsakogiannis

I am an enthusiastic Biology Researcher and Educator. Diversity characterizes my research and my studies. In a constant endeavour to understand nature, my research interests range from Molecular Biology, Genetics and Gene Expression to Ecology. I am principally a wet-lab experimentalist with skills in bioinformatic analyses. I have mostly worked with marine organisms that span from fish and aquatic invertebrates to seagrasses. I have participated in twelve European projects, and I had the opportunity to supervise several undergraduate students. My recent research focuses on fish reproduction investigating the role extracellular vesicles (EVs) in fish sperm. I have also studied Counseling and Psychology and am a passionate Diver. I have completed a four-year Bachelor's in Biology at the University of Crete with a specialization in biomolecular sciences & biotechnology and a dissertation in Bioinformatics. In my Master's in Research at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, I followed a purely ecological degree focusing on environmental management. At the same time, in my master's thesis, I completed a dissertation in landscape genetics. I have completed a PhD in Biology at the University of Crete, focusing on fish reproduction and sex determination. My PhD thesis is entitled: "Gene networks underlying functional sex in Sparidae (Pisces, Teleostei): inference by comparative transcriptomics." I concentrated on sex differentiation in five Sparidae species with diverse reproductive modes and compared gene expression differences in gonads using RNAseq. I have worked as a Research Fellow and later as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Genetics Laboratory of the Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology, and Aquaculture, HCMR (Hellenic Centre for Marine Research), Crete. I am recently enrolled in CCMAR as a Junior Researcher in the Aquagroup (Leader: prof. Elsa Cabrita) for the needs of the "Spermantiox" project, where I will mainly focus on fish reproduction and, more specifically, on extracellular vesicles in sperm.