Our research team is interested in taking part in 2021 JOINT CALL (FOUR ERA-NETS SUSAN, FACCE ERA-GAS, ICT-AGRI-FOOD AND SUSCROP) projects as a partner.
The Nutraceutical and Food Chemistry Unit (NFC) is a research group of Dept Biotechnology Chemistry and Pharmacy specialized in the investigation of chemical and biological properties of nutraceuticals and their use as ingredients for industrial products formulation, as well in the development of new methods of characterization and green-extraction of nutraceuticals from agricultural and agro-industrial residues.
The group research mainly focuses on Nutraceuticals and Food Chemistry: chemical characterization of nutraceutical components from natural products, agricultural and agro-industrial by product recovery, in vitro and in vivo investigations of nutraceuticals biological properties, formulation of functional foods and feeds, dietary supplements, cosmetics, biocides, bio-fertilizers, …
The research group has also a deep experience on NMR structural biology (proteins and nucleic acids structural studies, investigation of nutraceutical-biomolecules interactions), material synthesis and biocompatibility (synthesis and characterization of materials and biomaterials, micro- and nano-structured systems and biosensors for food safety, environmental and biomedical applications, multifunctional materials for regenerative medicine and engineering tissue, development of innovative protocols to study materials and biological systems via infrared spectroscopy, ATR-FT-IR, and secondary ion mass spectrometry, ToF-SIMS, applications).
Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmacy of the University of Siena has been activated in November, 1st, 2012, and is currently constituted by 57 academics and 26 technicians and administrative staff. The Department BCP/UNISI brings together researchers from molecular sciences with expertise in chemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry and technology, bio-chemistry, and molecular biology. The Department coordinates undergraduate and graduate degrees in the Chemical Sciences, Pharmacy, and in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies. The Department has two active PhD Programs, one in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, the other in Molecular Biotechnologies. The PhD Schools have many collaborations with universities and research centres at national and international level. The Department also offers Masters degrees and a Specialization Courses in different areas of chemical and biochemical sciences. The main research fields are: nanostructured materials, biosensors, hydrogel and biopolimers, catalysis, structural biology, microbiology, biophysics, environmental chemistry, environmental management, nutraceuticals, agricultural chemistry, cosmetics.
The achievements of the Department of BCP include supervising more than 50 Doctoral students, annually and more than thousand undergraduates and graduates students of both chemical and pharmaceutical sciences. The Department currently coordinate more than 50 international and national, Research projects, and more than 100 papers are published annually, in internationally recognized scientific journals. The Department was recently selected among the best Department of Italy in the Chemical areas.