UNIVR – DBT

University of Verona – Dept. Biotechnology

Associated Member

VUCC-DBT was established in 2021 at the Biotechnology Department of the University of Verona: its mission is to collect, identify, characterize, preserve and valorize bacterial and yeast strains derived from different environmental and food matrices for agro-industrial applications. At present, VUCC-DBT comprises approximately 500 strains of bacteria and yeasts belonging to 60 genera and about 100 species (especially Bacillus- and Lactobacillus-related genera), which are all identified with genetic techniques and genome sequencing is ongoing for the majority of deposited bioresources. 

Other 5.000 strains represent the internal potential for collection growth: they are the heritage of dedication of retired colleagues, collected in over 30 years of activities. 

A separate section of VUCC-DBT, named VUCC-R, contains strains of industrial relevance that are of exclusive use for partner companies.

Fields of interest for the collection are agri-food, environmental, industrial and health (probiotics)-related applications as well as development of DNA-based techniques for species identification and strain-level typing. VUCC-DBT expertise are available to develop innovation-led projects in different areas: support to primary production and transformation (e.g., plant-growth promotion, insect-pest control, innovation in food and feed production), environmental issues (e.g., bioremediation, PFAS decontamination, biotransformation of metals/metalloids), industrial innovation (e.g., biosurfactants, biopolymers and metal nanostructures production). Scientific interests include microbial ecology of natural and/or reconstituted consortia, also considering the impact at the regulatory level, as well as advances in the field of microbial taxonomy.

VUCC-DBT is involved in educational activities in Verona area and could provide knowledge transfer on prokaryotic taxonomy and biofilm formation for different stakeholders.

Collection:

• VUCC-DBT – Verona University Culture Collection – Department of Biotechnology

Key people:

• Prof. Silvia Lampis
  Scientific Responsible, PI of SUS-MIRRI and Reference person for environmental research 
• Prof. Giovanna Felis
  Curator of the collection, co-PI of SUS-MIRRI project, reference person for taxonomic activities and identification techniques
• Prof. Elisa Salvetti
  Collection quality manager and reference person for agri-food research and regulatory affairs
• Dr. Marco Andreolli
  Reference person for agro-industrial research
• Ms Beatrice Tontini
  Technical support (previously, technician SUS-MIRRI project – cat. D)*
• Ms Asma Nawaz
  PhD student (SUS-MIRRI project) with a project dealing with environmental microbiology and bioremediation from Per and Poly – Fluoro Alkyl Substances (PFAS)