Junior and Senior University Researchers with fixed-term contract (RTD) - Agricultural, Food and Environmental Microbiology (Prof.ssa Di Cagno, Raffaella)

Call

Rector's Decree n. 780/2025 of 05.06.2025

Call(pdf)

Online application (link)

Website of the procedure (link)

Project

Microbial Biofactories: Health-Promoting Metabolites Characterization from Food Fermentation (MicroFactories)

Deadline for sending applications and publications

31.07.2025 at 12:00 PM (noon)

Number applications

12

Description of the research activity:

This research project delves at directing the use of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts in the food chain, emphasizing their roles in fermented food production, the bioconversion of side streams into valuable foods or food ingredients, and the generation of bioactive microbial metabolites. The main focus is to characterize through advanced metabolomics techniques (e.g., using HPLC-PDA, UHPLC coupled Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer (TQMS), UHPLC, GC-MS) the metabolic activity of these microorganisms during fermentation, utilizing main substrates present in food matrices such as phenolic compounds, fatty acids, and proteins. The release of phenolic derivatives, hydroxy fatty acid derivatives, and bioactive peptides as functional metabolites will be evaluated for their antimicrobial, antifungal, and anti-inflammatory properties.