Technologies

The development of functional foods is often limited by industrial manufacturing processes, for example, for the production of baked foods, the use of high cooking temperatures causes denaturation of proteins, destruction of vitamins, alteration of fatty acids, etc. The protection of these components is essential in the production of gluten-free foods as they are generally poor in proteins and vitamins.

The proposed technology takes advantages of the huge potentialities of the gellan gum microgels in the preservation of cultural heritage. Microgels are polymeric gels particles with the micro and nanoscale size, whose soft nature is due to the presence of the aqueous solvent inside the particle. For their small size, they can easily diffuse in the environment and penetrate in the porous structure of paper and wood to act as cleaner agent.

In the last years, hop culture has spread throughout Italy, and the vegetative biomass disposal, after harvesting of cones, used for beer production, became a serious problem for hop growers. Hop plant contains in all parts, cones, shoots, leaves and roots, bioactive compounds, with proven and important antiviral, antibacterial and antioxidant properties.

We have identified compounds that show a neuroprotective action in vivo, in models of neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. SMA, Parkinson, Alzheimer, Huntington) in the model organism C. elegans. These compounds consist of: mixtures of 22 natural extracts, 15 natural molecules and 11 synthetic molecules.

uManager is a management game designed to foster the development of young students' entrepreneurial skills and abilities. The game offers the opportunity to manage a tourist village, stimulating the skills of decision making and problem-solving in a simulated scenario adhering to the real one. uManager is suitable for use in the classroom or at a distance, in formal and informal contexts.