Title: researcher/assistant professor
Association/Company: Università degli Studi di Bari “Aldo Moro”
Biography:
Danilo Vona holds a degree in Biotechnology and a PhD in Chemical and Molecular Sciences. Danilo is currently a researcher in Organic Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, University of Bari “Aldo Moro” (Italy), in the research group of Prof. Gianluca Maria Farinola.
He is responsible for the project “Algambiente” (POR Puglia FESR FSE 2014-2020 REFIN – Research for Innovation), concerning the bioremediation of the marine ecosystem from persistent organic and inorganic pollutants by exploiting diatom microalgae. He specialized in interfacing biological components with inorganic and organic functional materials, within the European project on hybrid electronics based on photosynthetic organisms (HyPhOE, FET-OPEN-01-2016-2017).
During his PhD in Organic Chemistry he worked on biohybrid systems based on biosilica extracted from diatom microalgae, synthetic organic biopolymers or extracted from natural matrices. He is co-organizer of Metrosea, an international congress on preservation and monitoring of marine water reservoirs, and emerged waters, with pollution as a central theme.
Danilo is author of more than 30 scientific articles, one book chapter, and has received several invitations to national and international seminars, congresses and schools.
Danilo has received 3 scientific-academic prizes, is professor of the elective course of “Chemical Functionalization of Living Biological Systems” at the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Biosciences and Biotechnology of the University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, and has been visiting researcher at Bordeaux – CNRS I (Bordeaux, France), Tufts University (Boston, USA) and UiT-Arctic University of Norway (Tromsø, Norway).
Speech session
Biomass: selection, modification and production of microalgaea
Speech
Scaled production of microalgae: an integrated approach using light modulation
Abstract
Microalgae are fascinating and particular microorganisms: they use the energy of the sun to produce highly valuable organic compounds such as lipids, antioxidants and pigments, consuming carbon dioxide.
The research group of prof. Gianluca Maria Farinola of the University of Bari “Aldo Moro” has long experience in using diatoms, glass-based microalgae, to produce non-soft and biohybrid nanostructured materials.
In this context, in collaboration with HANGAR Srl, we present early scaling-up investigations on the biosilica production by diatoms using a light modulation system integrated with a semi-continuous bioreactor.
