Today, we had the opportunity to view much of the recently constructed University of Nicosia Athens campus. The CEO of UNIC and guide for our tour, Antonis Polemitis, presented us with a thorough rundown of their chemistry labs, medical equipment, and patient rooms, but what stuck with me was his talk about UNIC Health Evolve.
He explained UNIC Evolve’s mission of bettering population health by improving what he described as our “Victorian-era” knowledge of omics by utilizing state-of-the-art genome sequencing technology in their Pharma Tech Lab. One such machine we were shown was able to sequence 18,000 human genomes a year, one of the highest-capacity machines of its type.
Using ionomics, the lab analyzed an organic dark chocolate sample and measured a notable amount of lead content, despite the chocolate being safe by industry standards. This tour showed me that the full set of molecules is often not considered in the food industry, and that much can still be done to fully understand food and our own bodies.
