Prof. Spyridon Kintzios Spyridon Kintzios is professor for Cell Technology and Dean of the School of Food Science, Biotechnology and Development, Agricultural University of Athens. He is the author or co-author of 89 peer-reviewed articles in cited international scientific journals. He is also the editor of five international books. He has coordinated and co-coordinated 28 EU and internationally funded research projects. Prof. Kintzios has also participated to the foundation of the Hellenic Biotechnology Cluster (HBio). He is a permanent member of several public and industry committees in Greece and abroad, including the National Agricultural Academy (elected full member).
In recent years, an increasing amount of experimental data has supported the hypothesis that intracellular communication, at tissue and organismal level, may be facilitated by distant cell-to-cell interactions other than based on close contact and the exchange of chemical or electrical signals. However, no conclusive evidence has been provided, so far, for the existence of unconventional intracellular communication. Herewith, the results of an innovative, biosensor-based approach to study this phenomenon are presented. It is clearly shown that neural cells are able to communicate neurotramitter-signalling effects even when separated by a physical barrier. The partial involvement of the cytoskeleton as the signal induction/sensing mechanism is also demonstrated, although the participation of ultra-weak photon (“biophoton”) emission is disputed. The perspectives for developing non-invasive diagnostic and/or therapeutic devices based on this phenomenon are briefly discussed.