At the laboratories of the ENEA Casaccia centre, starting from 1990, ENEA researchers have carried out various isolation campaigns from different agri-food matrices which have led to the selection and cryopreservation of over 1500 microbial isolates (bacteria, fungi, yeasts) with considerable application potential in several sectors and a plant virus. Strains have been collected from different environments: soil, rhizosphere, plant tissues, contaminated sites, hypogea and archaeological sites, food, lake sediments, water, activated sludge, vegetable waste, engineered environments, ruminal ecosystem. Over the years, microorganisms with plant growth promoting activities (Plant Growth Promoting Microbes, PGPM) have been isolated from the soil and rhizosphere of plants of agricultural interest, such as nitrogen-fixing microorganisms, phosphorus solubilizers, and antagonistic microorganisms capable of counteracting the development of phytopathogenic fungi through the synthesis of different types of metabolites including siderophores, lytic enzymes and antibiotics. From contaminated sites and degraded soils, arid and impoverished soils, have been isolated strains with plant growth-promoting activity, strains able to produce molecules useful for plants and mobilizing heavy metal in the soil with application potential in the bioremediation of contaminated sites and in the biorestoration. The collection also includes microbial strains and consortia used for applications in agriculture as biofertilizers in agricultural soils in semi-arid and arid areas and for the conversion of biomass of different nature into liquid and/or gaseous biofuels or products of industrial interest chemistry.

The microbial culture collection has been established by merging the microorganism collections from two departments: ENEA’s Department for Sustainability  and ENEA’s Department of Energy Technologies and Renewables Sources.

The microbial collection has several environmental applications:

• plant disease suppression and plant growth promotion,
• sustainability and protection (soil, bioremediation, waste management, restoration of artistic heritage, biorefinery, reduction of climate-altering gas emissions),
• production of high-value and bio-based molecules for the development of a sustainable and circular bioeconomy (nutraceutical, cosmeceutical, pharmaceutical, biofuels and green chemistry sectors)
• a vegetable virus with applications in the biomedical sector, especially for the development of innovative vaccines, diagnostic systems and delivery of targeted cancer therapy.

The UO10 is provided of all the equipment for classic and molecular microbiology: static and shaking incubators, anaerobic cabinets, biohazard cabinets level 2, autoclaves, centrifuges, Optical and Fluorescence Microscopes, Spectophotometers, ultra-low temperature freezers, PCR machines, bioreactors, mass spectrometry MALDI-TOF (BRUKER),  Infra-Red (FT-IR) spectroscopy system IR Biotyper (BRUKER), BIOLOG MicroStation™ Identification System, Spectrophotometer NanoDrop (Thermo Fisher), including cutting-edge technologies such as NextGen MiSeq Illumina Sequencer, ABI 3730 DNA Sequencer (Applied Biosystems), Genomic Starlet Workstation (Hamilton Robotic), MInION (Oxford Nanopore Technologies). Beside characterization, valorization and maintenance of microbial resources, the expertise of U010 stuff provides additional external services such as strain isolation, identification, characterization, and various analyses ranging from phenotype/molecular characterization to bioinformatics consultancy. Currently 17 researchers (15 F, 2 M and 0 NB),1 TD (F), 2 PhD student (1 F, 1 M and 0 NB), 2 AR (1F, 1M, 0 NB) are involved at ENEA – UO10 in the SUS-MIRRi.IT project.

The microbiologists and omics scientists of the OU ENEA CASACCIA has a long-standing and high expertise in soil microbiome, environmental microbial ecology, food microbiology, metagenomics, bioinformatics, bioaugmentation strategies, biorestoration, bioremediation and microbial biotechnology, thanks to their involvement in several national and international projects (https://sostenibilita.enea.it/projects; https://energia.enea.it/progetti-europei/; https://energia.enea.it/progetti-nazionali/).

Research Director at ENEA and Head of the Laboratory for AgriFood Sustainability, Quality and Safety, Department for Sustainability. Full Professor of Food Microbiology, Master degree in Food Technology and Supply Chain Management, University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, Italy. On 25 February 1987, she obtained her degree in Biological Science at “La Sapienza” University of Rome with the mark of 110/110 cum laude. On 2021, she achieved the National Scientific Qualification for the Italian title of Full Professor assigned by the national commissions ASN 2018-2020 in the scientific area: 05/I2 –Microbiology. She is author of more than 65 peer-reviewed publications and 250 communications at national and international conferences. She is engaged as Principal Investigator for ENEA in several national and European ongoing projects (DELISOIL, SIMBA, ECO-READY, EJP SOIL, SOIL-HUB, PE-10 ON Foods). She is the ENEA lead of SUS-MIRRI.IT “Strengthening the MIRRI Italian Research Infrastructure for Sustainable Bioscience and Bioeconomy” funded by Recovery Plan (NRRP) and UO ENEA C.R. Casaccia. She is the Scientific coordinator and curator of ENEA microbial culture collection (ENEA_EMCC) and Member of the Scientific Committee of MIRRI-IT. She is member of the Georgofily Accademy (Florence) and several scientific societies. Academic editor for Microorganisms, PlosOne and Frontiers in Microbiology. Scopus: ID: 6602516452; h-index:26.

Master degree in Biological Science (1987, University La Sapienza, Rome, Italy) and PhD in Plant Biology (1992, University “Statale”, Milan, Italy). From 1994 to 1998: Oversea Expert at the Institute for Science and Technology (Chiang Mai University, Thailand). Since 2000: researcher at the ENEA-Casaccia in the field of microbial biotechnologies applied to the bioremediation of polluted matrices (soil, water, sediment), and the biocleaning and conservation of Cultural Heritage. Author of 40 peer-reviewed articles and 10 book chapters, Editor of 2 books, and co-author of 1 European patent (PCT/IT 2014/000246). Referee for several international journals, Evaluator for national projects (Miur-Cineca), Scientific supervisor of natl. and intl. fellowships, and Tutor of MSc and PhD thesis.

ENEA researcher since 2019. Degree with honours and Ph.D. from the "Sapienza" University of Rome. For 19 years he was the Scientific Director of Floramiata S.p.A., for which he wrote and coordinated several research projects. During this period, he was also one of the founders of a small biotech company, Ambiotech S.r.l. (now liquidated) which he then managed for about 10 years. His knowledge concerns the regulation of biosynthetic pathways and heterologous expression of genes in plants, industrial production of plants through meristematic micropropagation, plant-pathogen interaction, genetic improvement and breeding, and currently in the isolation and molecular and biochemical characterisation of fungal strains of agro-industrial interest. He has expertise in molecular biology, biochemistry, plant and microbial cell cultures.

More than 30 years of research experience in the field of immunology and biotechnology. Main research interests: T lymphocytes differentiation and function, Expression of recombinant proteins in heterologous hosts, Plant virology, Vaccinology, Molecular farming (production of biopharmaceuticals in plants), Nanoparticles, Strategies for drug and vaccine delivery, Development of diagnostic assays, OneHealth. She is author of more than 40 peer-reviewed articles and over 70 communications at national/international congresses. She is co-author of 2 patents, member of the International Society for Plant Molecular Farming, and currently coordinator of the Horizon Europe project “Next Generation Vaccines and diagnostics to prevent livestock reproductive diseases of worldwide impact” (REPRODIVAC) https://www.reprodivac.eu/.

Researcher of the Laboratory for AgriFood Sustainability, Quality and Safety, Department for Sustainability, ENEA (2023 to present). Graduated in Molecular Biology and Functional Genomics at the University of Trieste, she obtained a PhD in Civil and Structural Engineering at the University of Sheffield and TEAGASC. She has worked as a research fellow at the Free University of Bolzano in the Environmental and Agricultural Microbiology group with projects aimed at studying the effect of nitrogen deposition on soil microbial communities. Since 2021 she has worked as a research fellow and researcher in the RICICLA group of the University of Milan on circular economy topics such as the production and degradation of bioplastics, microbial fuel cells, microalgae biorefineries and anaerobic digestion.

Her main area of interest has been the study of molecular mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory bowel diseases, including the involvement of specific bacteria, and the influence of the intestinal microbiota on the gut-liver-brain axis to identify new molecular markers as potential diagnostic and therapeutic targets. Furthermore, her studies have focused on new therapeutic strategies based on the use of non-pharmacological compounds as therapeutic adjuvants. In particular, the anti-inflammatory effects of probiotics and extracts of natural origin used individually, in combination, and following fermentative growth have been examined. Currently, her field of interest is agri-food microbiology and biotechnologies related to the sustainability, quality, and safety of products and processes.

She has a Master's degree in Genomic Biotechnology, a PhD in Pediatric Sciences and a Master's degree in Dietetics and Nutrition. She has been a researcher at ENEA since 2021 and her main fields of interest are agri-food microbiology and biotechnologies related to the safety, quality and sustainability of products and processes. Laboratory activities focus on the validation and application of diagnostic methods for food safety; qualification of productions; analysis and evaluation of microbiological transformations in production, processing, conservation and packaging processes; identification and quantification of quality components and markers in order to demonstrate the authenticity and origin of agri-food production and guarantee its traceability.

Claudia Dalmastri graduated in Biology and got specialization in Microbiology at the University of Rome La Sapienza. She has experience in environmental microbiology (characterization and typing of rhizosphere/soil and clinical bacteria, microbial population biodiversity and structure in natural habitats and food, plant growth promotion and biocontrol; opportunistic pathogens and bacteria-host interactions; microbiome in cystic fibrosis) and is currently involved in environmental epidemiology (assessment of the impact of climate change and pollution on human health). Teaching experiences in Environment, food and wine microbiology, University LaTuscia, Viterbo; Environmental microbiology, University Roma Tre, Rome; Food microbiology and hygiene, University Roma Tre. She is co-author of more than 60 scientific articles (h-index: 26). Member of Italian Society of General Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology.

Researcher, PhD
ENEA, Biotechnology and Agroindustry Division
Food technologist, PhD in Botanical Sciences, she carries out her activity in national and international research projects on the quality, safety, sustainability and eco-innovation of agro-industrial products and processes. She has acquired skills in the field of food microbiology through the application of both classical and innovative PCR/Real Time q-PCR molecular methods for the microbiological analysis of food; the performing of studies on the Shelf life of fresh or minimally -processed products; the execution of Microbial Challenge Test (MCT) in vitro and in vivo for the validation of the processes. Her activities also concern the development and application of spectrophotometric and HPLC/GC chromatographic methods for the characterization of plant and microbial species, for applications in the food and non-food sector, in a circular economy perspective.

ENEA researcher since 2021. Master's degree cum laude in Biology awarded in 2014 and Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (2019). Main research interests: agrifood microbiology and biotechnologies related to products and processes safety, quality and sustainability. Activities: soil and food microbiology; food safety, selection and characterization of new strains from food and soil; extraction of bioactive compounds from agro-industrial waste by means of sustainable protocols; application of traditional microbiology methods and advanced ones (e.g. molecular, microscopy and flow cytometry-based) for the identification, characterization and study of food and soilmicroorganisms.

In 2000 she graduated with honors in Biological Sciences at the Sapienza University (Rome), and in 2005 she obtained the PhD in Agriculture Genetics at La Tuscia University (Viterbo). She is researcher at ENEA since 2009. She has 20 years of experience in the Plant Molecular Farming field to produce in plants antigens for the development of vaccines/diagnostic assays. Her research focuses on the use of plant viruses as expression vectors and nanomaterials for the development of drug targeting and delivery systems, as catalytic supports, and diagnostic tools. She collaborated in projects funded by EU, ASI, AIRC, ENEA. She is author of 36 peer-reviewed papers, and of 2 patents.

PhD, is an environmental biotechnologist. She built her carrier at international level, in 2013 was awarded with an EU Marie Curie Grant (MC-IEF –326974), project Waste2BioHy, to join Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology (LBE) of INRA (France) and in 2017 was awarded with a Beatriu de Pinos fellowship, project BioERA, to join the GENECOV research group at UAB (Spain). Researcher at ENEA since 2019, she has been the Head of the Laboratory of Biotechnological Processes for Energy and Industry, Department of Energy Technologies up to February 2024. Her research activities in Environmental Biotechnology encompass all mixed-culture bioprocesses applied to treatment of organic waste and byproducts products recovery (renewable energy and chemicals): bioelectrochemical systems, fermentation, anaerobic digestion and designing biorefineries

Is senior researcher at the Department of Energy Technologies of ENEA, Laboratory of Hydrogen and New Energy Vectors. She is also a Lecturer at the Master in Ecobiology, Bioremediation course of contaminated aquatic and terrestrial environments, Sapienza University. She has experience in ecology, microbial ecology and ecology applied to the study of fermentation, anaerobic digestion and biogeochemical cycles. She currently carry out research in the field of energy valorisation of waste biomass with the production of biogas, biomethane and biohydrogen. She studies innovative strategies for improving energy yields and decontaminating waste biomass through bioaugmentation and biostimulation techniques of the microbial communities.

Is a permanent researcher in ENEA at the laboratory of Hydrogen and New Energy Vectors, Department of Energy Technologies. She holds a degree in Diversity of Biological Systems and a PhD in Ecology and Management of Biological Resources (2017). She studies biotechnological processes aimed at the energy valorisation of waste biomass with a microbial ecology and ecology approach. In this context, she studies fermentation and anaerobic digestion processes, also applying bioaugmentation and biostimulation strategies, and using knowledge of ruminal ecosystem microbiology. She has expertise in bioremediation techniques for regulated and emerging contaminants under anaerobic and aerobic conditions.

PhD-ENEA, Division Biotechnologies and Agroindustry
She graduated in 2000 in chemistry from “Sapienza” University of Rome which conferred her in 2010 the title of research doctor in Botany at the Laboratory of “Plant Pathology”. This experience allowed her to become an expert in plant and pathogenic fungi metabolomics. Nowadays she carries out studies on food sustainability, quality and safety through the characterization and the quantification of bioactive metabolites using chromatographic and spectrophotometric methods. These activities are conducted in the context of collaborations /national and international projects. Dr. Nobili is the author or co-author of peer-reviewed publications in international journals and books and is also the coordinator of the "food waste" working group within the "Italian Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform" national mirror of ECESP.

Political Science Degree, Researcher in the agro-food sector supporting ENEA division to EU and National project implementation for communication and dissemination activities. In this framework she has carried out communication and technology transfer activities in several EC funded projects, relating to different EU Programmes: ENPI CBC; Interreg MED; Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. Member of: i) “International biotechnologies working group” (2008-2009) of National Committee for Biosecurity, Biotechnology and Life Sciences (Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers); ii) “Communication, Training and Technology Transfer” working groups of the Italian Technology Platform “Food for life”; iii) International Observatory of Social Theory on New Technologies and Sustainability - SOSTENIBILIA. Member of the ENEA Department's METROFOOD-TI and Communication task force.

Graduated in Biology in 1986 at the University La Sapienza, Rome. After a training period on the characterisation of virulence plasmids of enteroinvasive strains of Escherichia coli at La Sapienza University, she joined as fellow the ENEA Casaccia Microbiology Laboratory (Rome), to work on microbial degradation of chemical wastes. From May 1989 Silvia Tabacchioni was in charge as researcher at ENEA Casaccia. Her research activity was focussed first on bacterial production of chemicals using wastes as substrate and then on the microbial ecology of plant-growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), opportunistic human pathogenic bacteria and on the bioconversion of biomasses into biofuels and biofertilizers. Her present research is mainly focussed on the characterization of soil microbial communities and on the application of PGPR as biofertilizers.

Graduated in Biological Sciences at Sapienza University (Rome) in 2000. From 2001 to 2003 she worked as a researcher in the pharmaceutical industry Merck-Serono dealing with the development of microbiological methods for drug quality control. Since 2003 she has worked at ENEA Casaccia, first as a research fellow, then, since 2010, as a researcher. She deals with microbial biotechnologies with applications in the fields of bioremediation of polluted matrices, development of biofertilizers and biorestoration of artistic heritage. She manages the conservation of the collection of microbial strains of the laboratory. She is author of scientific papers and book chapters. She carries out tutoring activities for degree theses, doctorates, and research grants. Teacher of advanced training courses for universities and speaker in seminars for schools and universities on topics related to environmental microbiology and biorestoration.

He has been a researcher at ENEA since 2023. With an honors degree in Genomic Biotechnologies obtained in 2014, a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering (2018), and a second-level master's degree in Bioinformatics and Data Science, his main areas of interest cover environmental microbiology applied to the study of soil and agroecosystem health, fate and effect of emerging contaminants on soil microbial communities, and One Health. His research activities include molecular microbiology on soil matrices, targeted and untargeted NGS sequencing, and genomic and functional bioinformatics

Graduated summa cum laude in Environmental Science in 2002. She earned a Ph.D. in Ecology and Management of Biological Resources in 2010. From 2002 to 2004 her general research area includes Ecology, Population Genetics, Molecular Biology. Since 2004 her activities deal with microbiology and microbial ecology, in different fields of application (environment, bioremediation, renewable energy, food, clinical health, biorestauration) working for public and private research institutes: ENEA italian agency for new technologies, Ylichron s.r.l, Italian Cystic Fibrosis Research Foundation (FFC), University of Cagliari. Teaching experience in Chemistry and Science at the High School. As a scientist, Patrizia Paganin reviewed manuscripts for international journals, authored about 30 papers in peer-reviewed journals and presented her work to several national and international conferences.

She is a research assistant at ENEA and has been pursuing a Ph.D. in Plant and Animal Production Sciences since 2021 in collaboration with the University of Tuscia, Viterbo. With a master’s degree in food and human nutrition sciences obtained in 2021, she has expertise in food and soil microbiology, culture-based and molecular methods, application of flow cytometry for the bacterial physiology investigation during food stabilization and preservation processes. She also researches the antimicrobial and probiotic potential of biomolecules recovered from agrifood by-products and their application in eco-friendly packaging. Her research activity focuses on the development and application of chemical-analytical methodologies to support food quality and safety and circular bioeconomy, as well as digital approaches for transparency and sustainability along the supply chain.

2^nd year ENEA – UNITO Phd Student participating to SUS-MIRRI.IT project - Strengthening the MIRRI Italian Research Infrastructure for Sustainable Bioscience and Bioeconomy. Currently working in the AgriFood Sustainability, Quality and Safety ENEA on soil microbiomes and their potential to enhance agricultural productivity functioning as an alternative to chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Graduated in Human Nutrition Master degree at the Campus Bio-Medico of Rome in 2022 and Biology at the Roma Tre University in 2019. Current expertise: classic microbiology,  metagenomics analysis of soil communities, metabolic functional profiling of bacterias, bioinformatics

He is a postdoctoral researcher at the Agri-food Sustainability, Quality and Safety Laboratory of the ENEA research centre, Casaccia. He graduated in Food Science and Human Nutrition, cum laude, in 2019 at the University CAMPUS BIO-MEDICO of Rome. He obtained the PhD in Food Science (Department of Agriculture) in 2022 at the University Federico II of Naples. He carries out research activities on: soil microbiology, selection and characterization of new soil strains by cultivation and molecular methods, storage and biotechnological exploitation of microbiomes. He has experience in the field of New Plant Breeding Technologies (NPBT) and metabolic engineering applied to the nutritional improvement of agronomic species.