Plant & Environmental
Biotechnology Laboratory

Dimitrios Karpouzas

Professor in Enviromental Microbiology & Biotechnology

Dimitrios Karpouzas is a Professor in Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology, Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, University of Thessaly. He has a first degree in Agriculture from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, an MSc in Crop Protection from the University of Reading and a PhD in the microbial degradation of pesticides in soil by the same University. He did his postdoc research in Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy before joining University of Thessaly. His research interests focus on the study of the interaction of soil microbes with organic pollutants in the agricultural environment. In this frame he is studying the microbial degradation of organic pollutants including pesticides, veterinary medicines and other agrochemicals like nitrification inhibitors but also the potential ecotoxicity of these pollutants (including plastics) on the soil microbiota. In this respect he is involved in the development of new regulatory frameworks for assessing the risk associated with synthetic and low-risk pesticides. In the last few years his group is working intensively on the development of novel (bio)solutions to regulate the activity of microbial nitrification and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural land pioneering research in biological nitrification inhibitors. Dr Karpouzas has been the author of 179 papers in peer reviewed journals (citations > 5000, h-index 43). He has coordinated several projects funded by the European Commission (MSCA-IAPP Love-to-Hate; MSCA-ITN ARISTO, MSCA-IF EMIGRATE, HE-RIA-RATION, H2020-WIDENING ACTIONr) and other projects funded by national funding bodies (HFRI, GSRI) and the private sector (SYNGENTA, Grantham Foundation). He has been also a founding member of the National Research Infrastructure of Synthetic Biology in AgroFood Omic-Engine.

Projects

Ecotoxicity of pesticides and other pollutants on soil microbes
Functional metagenomics and Synthetic microbial ecology
Microbial degradation of organic pollutants – applications
Plant-Microbe Symbioses: ecology and function
Plant microbiome
Plant-Derived Bioactive Compounds for Cancer Therapy and Molecular Diagnosis
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PhD Theses

Chloen Lhomme: Influence of pharmaceuticals on microbial functions, diversity and antimicrobial resistance development and dissemination in soil (ongoing)

Paraskevi Amanatidou: Exploring the nitrification inhibition potential of plants from the Greek flora for the discovery of novel biological nitrification inhibitors (ongoing)

Chrysovalantou Moutzourelli: Evaluation of the impact of synthetic and biological nitrification inhibitors on soil microbial community and the emission of greenhouse gases (ongoing)

Eleni Lamprou: Study of the interactions of microplastics with the soil microbiota (ongoing)

Christos Papadopoulos: Evaluation of the toxicity mechanisms of pesticides on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi at varying levels of experimental complexity (ongoing)

Alexandre Pedrinho: Assessment of the toxicity of biopesticides on soil microorganisms (2025)

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Publications

Kolovou, M., Bachtsevani, E., Bekris, F., Pedrinho, A., Omirou, M., Nicol, G. W., Hazard, C., Papadopoulou, E. S., & Karpouzas, D. G. (2026). Using species sensitivity distributions to assess the toxicity of pesticides on nitrifiers and broader microbial groups: From single-species tests to soil amplicon sequencing. Environmental Pollution, 406, 128640. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2026.128640

Manukyan, A., Pedrinho, A., Karas, P. A., Papadopoulos, C., Katsoula, A., Vasileiadis, S., Karpouzas, D. G., & Papadopoulou, K. K. (2026). Mycorrhizal inoculum–mediated modulation of maize–rhizosphere interactions under pesticide stress. European Journal of Soil Biology, 130, 103844. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejsobi.2026.103844

Katsivelou, E., Perruchon, C., Karas, P. A., Sarantidou, A., Pappa, E., Katsoula, A., Ligda, P., Sotiraki, S., Martin-Laurent, F., Vasileiadis, S., & Karpouzas, D. G. (2023). Accelerated dissipation, soil microbial toxicity and dispersal of antimicrobial resistance in soils repeatedly exposed to tiamulin, tilmicosin and sulfamethoxazole. Science of The Total Environment, 893, 164817. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164817

Forestieri, B., Voccia, D., Lamastra, L., Lwanga, E. H., Karpouzas, D. G., Nuzzi, C., & Negri, I. (2026). Ecotoxicological impact of Albendazole and low-density polyethylene microplastics on the collembola Folsomia candida (Willem, 1902). Applied Soil Ecology, 219, 106764. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.106764

Michelioudakis, V., Zafranas, A., Myrisiotis, C., Makri, S., Katsoula, A., Campos, M., Vasileiadis, S., & Karpouzas, D. G. (2026). Comparative Genomic and Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals Why Paenarthrobacter Strains Are Specialists in the Degradation of the Fungicide Iprodione. Microbial Biotechnology, 19(2), e70319. https://doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.70319

Gorgia, P., Lagos, S., Nikolaou, C. N., Basdeki, N., Papadopoulos, C., Karpouzas, D. G., & Tsikou, D. (2026). Benzimidazole Anthelmintic Compounds Albendazole and Fenbendazole Show Distinct Toxicity on the Nitrogen Fixing Bacterium Mesorhizobium loti and Its Symbiosis With Lotus japonicus. Environmental Toxicology, tox.70101. https://doi.org/10.1002/tox.70101

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Our successful story

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