Dr. Michalis Hadjithomas

Dr. Michalis Hadjithomas is Director of the Genomics & Data Science Unit at UNIC Evolve, the University of Nicosia’s flagship research initiative. He leads the development of the Unit’s genomic and bioinformatic capabilities, bringing together high-throughput sequencing, computational biology and laboratory automation. He is also a Co-founder and Partner of BioInnovation Greece (BiG), helping connect science, industry, investment and policy to strengthen Greece’s biotechnology innovation ecosystem.

He brings extensive experience in biotechnology, computational biology and genomics. He served as Vice President and Head of Genomics at LifeMine Therapeutics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, where he oversaw the development of the company’s computational discovery engine from the ground up, integrating genomics, evolutionary biology and machine learning to identify novel drug candidates. Earlier, he held roles at DNAnexus (USA), the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (USA) and the J. Craig Venter Institute (USA).

He is a Fulbright Scholar who holds a BSc in Biology from the University of Kansas (USA) and a PhD from The Johns Hopkins University (USA). His interests span genome mining, natural product discovery, microbiome research, microbial and fungal genomics, and machine learning for drug discovery, with a focus on translating scientific advances into new technologies and biotechnology ventures. He has co-authored publications in Science, Nature Biotechnology, PNAS and Nucleic Acids Research and led the development of inventions described in five published US patent applications, on which he is a co-inventor.