Team
Co-chairs
Sergio Casella go to full CV...
• Full professor of microbiology and biotechnology, head of the Department of Agricultural Biotechnology (1999–2005), member of the directive committee of the Scuola Galileiana di Studi Superiori (2004–2010), and head of the PhD School of Crop Science (2017-2020) at the University of Padova. He participated in and led several research projects funded by the European Commission, bilateral projects with Cornell University, USA, and Stellenbosch University, South Africa. His research activity focused mainly on applications of microbiology to agri-food and environment, including studies on multifunctional genes and genetically modified microorganisms in open fields, and . Key activities concern the bioconversion of agri- food wastes into high value-added products, such as biopolymers (PHA) and biofuels (ethanol).
Lorenzo Favaro go to full CV...
• Dr. Lorenzo Favaro is an associate professor of Agricultural Microbiology at the University of Padova. After graduating with honors in Agricultural Sciences and Technologies, he earned the Ph.D. degree in Agricultural Biotechnologies in 2010. His main research interests are in the fields of microbial biotechnologies to process low-cost agricultural and industrial waste streams into valuable products such as fuels (bioethanol, biohydrogen and biogas) and biopolymers (PHAs, polyhydroxyalkanoates). He is the author or co-author of 45+ peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. He is co-author of an international patent on the engineering of yeast strains for the conversion of cellulosic and starchy residues into biofuels.
Marina Basaglia go to full CV...
• Marina Basaglia is associate professor at the Department of Agronomy Food Natural Resources Animals and Environment of the University of Padova since 2005. Her career has been devoted to the isolation and characterization of industrial microorganisms
with novel properties both at the university and in private companies. Her fields of interest are the exploitation of agro-food wastes to obtain high-value products (mainly bioethanol, biohydrogen and bioplastics), the biosafety of genetically modified microorganisms, and the selection and genetic improvement of microorganisms as plant growth-promoting bacteria and for bioremediation purposes.
Technical staff
Valentino Pizzocchero
• Valentino Pizzocchero is a laboratory technician in DAFNAE at the University of Padova. After his M.Sc. (Animal Science), he gained several years of experience in analytical and instrumental chemistry, especially in chromatographic techniques using HPLC and GC systems. His first six years of training were in the field of food safety and public health at I.Z.S. delle Venezie, being involved in different research projects and collaborating with other public institutions, including Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Rome) and I.Z.S. della Sicilia. Currently, his work is focused on the improvement and development of methods for the analysis of microbial metabolism products, working as a laboratory technician in the biotechnology and microbiology research team in DAFNAE. He is co-author of 5 peer-reviewed papers and 5 abstracts at international conferences.
valentino.pizzocchero@unipd.it
Post-doc
Nicoletta Gronchi
• Dr. Nicoletta Gronchi is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at DAFNAE, University of Padova. After graduating in Biotechnology for Food Safety and Nutrition, she earned the Ph.D. degree in Crop Science in 2019 with a thesis entitled "Development of consolidated-bioprocessing yeasts for the second-generation bioethanol production from agricultural residues". Her main research interests are in the fields of microbiology and molecular biology: she implemented the CRISPR/Cas9 methodology in natural yeast for the development of a starch-hydrolysing strain for bioethanol production. She collaborated with Stellenbosch University (South Africa) and KU Leuven (Belgium). She is the author and co-author of 2 peer-reviewed papers.
nicoletta.gronchi@phd.unipd.it
PhD students
Silvia Brojanigo
• Silvia Brojanigo obtained her degree with honors in Agricultural Sciences and Technologies at the University of Padova in 2017. From 2018 she is ensuing the Ph.D. degree in Crop Science with the project entitled “Engineering of suitable bacteria to produce polyhydroxyalkanoates from organic waste streams”. In 2020 she spent 9 months at the Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (DTU) working in the field of environmental engineering of anaerobic digestion of agro-industrial waste. Her main research interests are in the fields of microbial and anaerobic digestion of low-cost agro-industrial waste streams into polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) and methane. She is the author and co-author of 4 peer-reviewed papers and 3 abstract/posters at national conferences.
silvia.brojanigo@phd.unipd.it
Ameya Gupte
• Ameya Gupte, is a Ph.D. student in Crop Science at the Univ. of Padova (DAFNAE). He pursued M.Sc. in Microbiology from Univ. of Mumbai and has around three years of industrial experience. His work was focused on process development and optimization (lab and pilot plant scale) for value added products (Vanillin, cis-3-hexen-1-ol, terpenes and other aroma products) from lignocellulosic biowaste and vegetable oils using fermentation, biotransformation and ozonolysis. His research interests are in the fields of valorization of agricultural by-products int biofuels. Currently he is pursuing his Ph.D on the topic “BIOGEN4FUEL: Genetic and genomic approaches to develop superior yeast strains for second-generation bioethanol”.
ameyapankaj.gupte@phd.unipd.it
Paolo Costa
• Paolo Costa is a Ph.D. student in Crop Science at the University of Padova. After graduating in Industrial Biotechnology at the University of Turin he began in 2020 the Ph.D. course, developing the research thesis "Synthesis of co-polymer poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4-hydroxybutyrate) (P(3HB-4HB)) from agro-industrial solid and gaseous wastes by engineered microbes". His research interests converge on microbial production of PHAs (polyhydroxyalkanoates) and bacterial genomic engineering. He is first author on 1 peer-reviewed paper and 1 abstract at a national conference.
paolo.costa.8@studenti.unipd.it
Marthinus Wessel Myburgh
• Marthinus Wessel Myburgh obtained his M.Sc. (Microbiology) (Cum Laude) at the University of Stellenbosch in 2019. In 2020 he started a co-tutelage Ph.D. degree between the University of Stellenbosch and the University of Padova which resulted from a strong collaborative relationship between two research groups. His research is focused on the enzymatic valorization of plastics and bioplastics through improved heterologous gene expression in industrially applicable microbial hosts. He is the author of 2 peer-reviewed research papers and has 6 conference outputs to date.
18182267@sun.ac.za
Research fellowship holders
Elettra Parro
• Elettra Parro graduated in Food Science and Technology at the University of Padova in 2019. She developed her master thesis in the microbiology Waste to Bioproducts-Lab in DAFNAE department, working on the production of microbial polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) from starchy by-products (rice and potato). Her current research fellowship is in collaboration with Versalis and focuses on the production of PHAs from cheese whey. She is co-author on 1 peer-reviewed paper and 1 abstract at an international conference.
elettra.parro@studenti.unipd.it
Sara Agostini
• Sara Agostini graduated in Industrial Biotechnology at the University of Padua with the thesis “Study of the microbiome of anaerobic digestion with isolation techniques e process optimization through bioaugmentation”. From 2021 she is holding a research grant in collaboration with BTS Biogas Srl. Her study is focused on the real-time monitoring of the microbial populations involved in the anaerobic digestion of several organic waste streams. Her final goal is optimizing the process and increasing methane yield by both DNA-based and culture-based approaches.
sara.agostini.4@studenti.unipd.it
Marco Rovasio
• Marco Rovasio graduated in Industrial Biotechnology at the University of Torino in 2020. His thesis project entitled “Study of the oxydation process in wines produced with and without the addition of sulfur dioxide” was part of a larger project involving the CREA-VE department of Asti and some wine producers in Monferrato. His current research fellowship is in collaboration with Versalis and focuses on the production of PHAs from cheese whey.
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Former-recent PhD students
Jesùs E. Rodriguez G.
• Dr. Jesùs E. Rodriguez G. is a member of the INNOVEN SRL team, where he works as environmental biotechnologist, focusing mainly on the transformation of waste into value-added products such as polyhydroxyalkanoates and/or biogas. After graduating in Agro-industrial Engineer at the Lisandro Alvarado University- Venezuela, he earned at Padova University the Ph.D. degree in Crop Science in 2018 with a thesis entitled "Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) production from lipids containing agri-food wastes". His main research interests are in the fields of microbiology and biotechnology. As member of the Waste to Bioproducts-Lab, he developed recombinant Cupriavidus necator DSM 545 strains for the efficient expression of nuclease and lipolytic enzymes. He collaborated for two years as post-doc at the University of Verona "LabiCAB" working at the production of PHAs with mixed microbial cultures. He is the author and co-author of 3 papers and 10 posters at national and international conferences.
jesus.rodriguezgamero@innoven.it
Lorenzo Cagnin
• Dr. Lorenzo Cagnin (M.Sc in Evolutionary biology) is a former member of the Waste to Bioproducts-Lab, where he focused on genetic engineering of wild type Saccharomyces cerevisieae yeast strains to establish the Consolidated BioProcessing of lignocellulosic substrates into bioethanol. He earned the Ph.D. degree in Crop Science in 2017 and continued his research for one more year in the lab as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Since 2019, he is a Research Lab Supervisor for the CTSI Lab at Boston Children's Hospital / Harvard Medical School in Boston (US).
lorenzo.cagnin@childrens.harvard.edu
