Research
GREEN-IT is organized in two research lines aiming to:
1. Develop innovative methods to increase the productivity of crops and forest trees, ensuring environmental sustainability and food security
2. Develop new clean technologies and bioprocesses for added-value products, bioremediation and alternative energy resources.
OUR OBJECTIVES
Thematic line 1
Innovation in plant improvement to ensure environmental sustainability and food security
Activities focusing on plant resources, from the herbaceous to the woody plants, including forest trees, addressing key biological questions related to growth and development, responses to environmental stresses and improvement of crop varieties and plant products.
Our research objectives include:
(1) Uncovering the plant mechanisms to perceive and adjust to the environment;
(2) To uncover the regulation of secondary growth processes (wood/cork);
(3) To characterize genetic resources and develop molecular tools to explore plant biodiversity (e.g. selection of improved genotypes);
(4) To integrate basic and applied research for plant improvement (e.g. development of new plant pre-breeding materials);
(5) To develop new management/production practices (e.g. directed to agriculture and energy production optimization);
(6) Development of genomic resources, tools and infrastructures for bioinformatics (integrating genomics, biochemical and physiological data).
Thematic line 2
Clean technologies and bioprocesses for added-value products, bioremediation and energy resources
Research targeting the production of added-value compounds and renewable energy, including design of novel (bio)catalysts and biomaterials, and using novel bioprocesses based on clean solvents for carbon capture and bioremediation.
Our research objectives include:
(1) Development of novel bio and chemical catalysts, biomaterials, enzymes and microorganisms (e.g. convert recalcitrant biopolymers into high value products, obtain new beneficial, fungal secondary metabolites);
(2) Novel processes for degradation and valorization of agro-forestry by-products (e.g. to obtain new plant-based materials and biocomposites);
(3) Bioremediation of environmental pollutants (e.g. new technologies for enzymatic degradation of synthetic pollutants; removal of pharmaceuticals from waste waters);
(4) Technologies and catalysis for new energy resources (e.g. discover and engineer new microorganisms, enzymes and catalysts for hydrogen production and CO2 reduction);
(5) Plant cell factories for molecular farming (e.g. improve recombinant protein production in plants and plant cells).
