BRIC - Innovative approaches to biosafety for the protection of human health and the environment

The extreme accessibility of Genetically Modified MicroOrganisms and the latency period, sometimes of years, with which any adverse effects may emerge, increases the risk that their use may occur without adequate awareness of the potential risks associated. It is therefore necessary to provide operators with an adequate technical preparation, as well as to investigate and leverage on the unconscious bias that predisposes an operator to act with timing and professionalism on biosafety issues.

With this project we intend to inform, educate, obtain feedback and carry out a targeted training for different roles; motivate – so that each person is aware of his part in biosafety – and create a network between operators whose laboratories use advanced biotechnology methods.

It will also be identified a sample of trainees to deepen, through the tools of neuro marketing (EEG, measurement of pupil dilation, etc..), the unconscious forms that give substance to the decision-making processes acted in the field of biosafety. The information collected will become an asset and will be used to update the communication styles that will be used in the future.

sPATIALS3 - Improvement of agrifood productions and innovative technologies for a safer and more secure and sustainable nutrition

sPATIALS3 is a technological and research hub involving 12 CNR Institutes belonging to 4 different Departments and 4 companies. Main objectives will be: obtainment of innovative food products improved for their nutritional and functional properties; provision and implementation of precision technologies to guarantee products quality, safety and traceability; development of innovative and eco-sustainable smart– and active-packaging to minimize and reuse wastes, where possible, and to increase food preservability; provision to consumers and producers of tools for results exploitation.

NUTR-AGE: Nutrition, Diet and Active Aging

The aim of the project is to evaluate the impact of new functional foods and bioactive compounds on human health, with particular interest in the prevention of the main neurodegenerative and metabolic diseases linked to population aging. Thanks to the integrated approach of different scientific skills it was possible:

1. to select the bioactive compounds present in the different food matrices (including the by-products of the agri-food industry);

2. to identify the richer fractions in the greatest interest products to obtain bio-fortified, functional and pre-pro-post-biotic foods;

3. to study their protective effects through in vitro studies and on animal models;

4. to preserve the biological activities during the processing phases and cooking;

5. to verify their bioavailability and regulation role on the intestinal microbiota.