UNINA – IBISBA-IT

Department of Biology (DIB) and Department of Chemical Sciences (DSC)

University of Naples "Federico II"

The DIB is engaged in in identifying, characterising and engineering new enzymes specifically for industrial biotechnological purposes, while DSC is involved in the growth of microalgae and cyanobacteria, the extraction of various classes of molecules using a cascade approach, and the biological characterisation of these isolated molecules for use in biotechnological applications.

Area of Research

DIB

Identification and characterisation of enzymes active on carbohydrates and their engineering for the chemoenzymatic synthesis of oligosaccharides in high yields for green chemistry, pharmaceutical applications and bio-medicine
Metagenomics in geothermal environments for the identification of (hyper) thermophilic microorganisms and the exploitation of their enzymes in green chemistry, in the agro-food sector and for biofuels

DSC

Set up of experimental conditions for microalgal growth
Green approach for the isolation and characterisation of molecules with antioxidant activity, to be used in pharmaceutical and nutraceutical fields
Analysis of other biological activities, such as anti cancer activity, of the isolated molecules
Use of the isolated lipids as substrates for microbial growth to produce bioplastic

Expertise and Main Technologies

DIB

Enzymology, metagenomics, (hyper)thermophilic microbial cultures, protein engineering, bioinformatics

DSC

Biochemistry, cell biology, microalgal cultures, isolation of molecules in a cascade approach, antioxidant activity

Key Organisms

DIB

Mesophilic and Thermophilic Bacteria

Hiperthermophilic Archea

DSC

Cyanobacteria and Microalgae

Industrial Applications

DIB

The research activity can be applied in different industrial fields and applications such as in the degradation of (hemi)cellulolytic biopolymers for the production of biofuels in the modern biorefineries as well as for the production of fine chemicals and biomolecules of nutraceutical interest (mainly oligosaccharides) with a high added value starting from waste biomasses.

DSC

The research activity can be applied in different industrial fields and applications, such as the production of antioxidant molecules to be used in nutraceutical application or in cosmeceutic field, as well as in the production substrates used from microorganisms for bioplastic synthesis (oligosaccharides and lipids). All the class of molecules are obtained in a cascade approach, taking in consideration the green chemistry philosophy and using photosynthetic microorganisms able to transform CO₂ in O₂.