UNIBO – IBISBA-IT

Alma Mater Studiorum

University of Bologna

The university is engaged in identifying novel sources of biomass, enzymes and bio-products; sustainable exploitation of marine life diversity; bio-refinery and new value chains for organic waste; innovative biobased building blocks for the synthesis of chemicals and added value molecules.

Area of Research

Development of industrial and environmental biotechnological processes in a circular bioeconomy frame
Focus areas include:
- Multipurpose biorefinery processes for treating agro-industrial and urban (bio)wastes, surplus, and wastewaters
- Integrated valorization with the production of biobased chemicals/monomers, biopolymers, and biofuels
- Enzymatic processes for recycling and upcycling plastic packaging/items
- Bioremediation strategies for decontaminating marine environments (water column and sediments), soils, and groundwater polluted with petroleum hydrocarbons and organohalogenated compounds
- Exploitation of microbiomes for sustainable production of industrial high-value products from agro-industrial waste and by-products
Research activities include:
- Enrichment/isolation, characterization, and selection of pure bacterial cultures or complex microbial communities with desired functionality
- Design of bioprocesses
- Monitoring through chemical, microbiological, and molecular biology methods
- Optimization and validation in various reactor systems such as stirred tank reactors, biofilm packed bed bioreactors, or micro- and mesocosms for environmental bioremediation.

Expertise and Main Technologies

selection and characterization of microbial cultures/communities of interest for the treatment of complex biowastes, the production of biobased products,the biodegradation of environmental pollutants, the valorization of agro-industrial waste and by-products to obtain value-added compounds or for their re-use, for the preparation of microbial inoculants to increase crop productivity reducing the use of chemical inputs.
technological characterization and selection of microbial cultures for the preparation of innovative and functional foods and optimization of fermentation processes.
bioprocess development, optimization and validation in 1L to 10L conventional and innovative bioreactors or micro-/mesocosms
multi-omics (eg. metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, metaproteomics and metabolomics) characterization of microbiomes
advanced bioinformatic approaches for the treatment of microbiome multi-omics data, including the screening for secondary metabolites biosynthetic Gene Clusters, the construction and functional screening of metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), the application of multidimensional statistics and the modeling of microbiomes, deriving modules, hubs and pathways involved in selected functions and phenotypes
culturomics

Key Organisms

Pure Microbial Cultures

Complex Microbial Communities

Synthetic Microbial Communities

Industrial Applications

The research can be of interest for different industries, as indicated by collaborations with a number of companies like Biosphere, Caviro, EniRewind, Hera, Novamont, among others.