Developing Sustainable and Health-Promoting Cereals and Pseudocereals: Conventional and Molecular Breeding

Marianna Rakszegi, PhD Chemical Sciences, is a principal investigator of cereal chemistry at the Cereal Breeding Department of the Centre for Agricultural Research. As the leader of the laboratory for quality traits, her main interest is the identification and development of biochemical and molecular-biology tools to develop a more efficient selection system for quality-oriented wheat breeding. Her research focuses on storage proteins, starch, dietary fibers and other bioactive components of cereals. She is a guest associate editor at Frontiers in Plant Science and editorial board member of the Journal of Cereal Science, and co-breeder of 38 wheat and 2 spelt varieties. She won the János Bólyai Fellowship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences twice, and theZoltán Magyary postdoctoral Fellowship. She was awarded the ’Researcher of the year 2017’ by the HAS.and is a member of EUCARPIA and the Committee on Plant Breeding, Agricultural Sciences of the HAS.

Maria Papageorgiou PhD is Professor Food Science and Technology, International Hellenic University is a graduate of the Department of Chemistry -Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, PhD from Cranfield University, UK. She is involved in several international initiatives, including serving as Secretary - Treasurer of the European Section of the Cereals and Grains Association, Cereals & Europe. She is Board member and member of the Technical Committee of the International Association of Cereal Chemists having also served as National Delegate of Greece in that organization. She is newly elected Board member and represents IHU as Institutional member at the ISEKI FOOD Association and as Article 36 Organizations of EFSA. She has coordinated bilateral research projects, national research activities and has been a team member of EU funded projects. Her main research interests are the tailoring of functional properties of cereal grains and their components in view of developing specific cereal healthy foods and ingredients.

João M. Rocha PhD, is a researcher at Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy (LEPABE), Department of Chemical Engineering (DEQ), Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (FEUP). His PhD is in Food Science and Engineering from University of Lisboa. He is the Chair, Principal Coordinator and Grant Holder Scientific Representative of the COST Action SOURDOMICS (CA18101) with 55 countries from 5 Continents. He is also Secretary of the General Assembly board of the National Association of Science and Technology Researchers (ANICT). His research activities and interests related with cereal science and sourdough biotechnology encompasses: phenotypic and genotypic screening and characterization of microorganisms; design and development of fermentation processes and starter cultures; production, extraction and purification of functional microbial metabolites; design of innovative food products and processes and valorization of by-products and food wastes; food safety and ascertaining the health promoting effects, environmental sustainability and economic feasibility of food.