RU1 - Research team

Principal Investigator of the RAP-BIG National Project and Leader of the RU1 at the Department for Life Quality Studies of the University of Bologna. Prof. Antognoni is Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Biology at the Rimini campus, where she heads the Laboratory of Plant Biology and Pharmaceutical Botany. Her research activities cover the following areas: 1) qualitative and quantitative analysis of secondary metabolites in extracts obtained from plants of pharmaceutical, herbal, and food interest; 2) use of plant extracts obtained from by-products and/or waste products of the agri-food industry as biostimulants in plants and study of the response of plants to various types of abiotic environmental stress related to climate change; 3) study of the biological activities exerted by plants used in traditional medicine in Burkina Faso and Ecuador and enriched in compounds of different chemical nature (antioxidant activity, metal chelation, inhibition of enzymes that play an important role in certain multifactorial diseases) 3) ethnobotanical studies to identify the plants most commonly used in traditional medicine, especially in Burkina Faso.

Within the project, her main role will be to coordinate the activities planned by both RUs, based on her consolidated experience. She will also manage research funds and supervise the research fellows involved in the project. The objective will be to develop optimized extracts from red apple pomace with a particular focus on sustainable extraction processes, involving the use of solvent mixtures with low environmental impact and safe for human health, and sustainable techniques, which will then be studied for their biological activities on different in vitro cell systems.

Dr. Afifi is a postdoctoral researcher in natural products at the University of Bologna. His research activities mainly concern molecular and biochemical studies related to plants, in particular the extraction of plant material with green solvents and the chemical profile of extracts. His field of research also covers aspects related to chromatographic techniques (e.g., GC-MS, LC-MS, HPLC-DAD) for the characterization of phytocomplexes. For the RAP-BIG project, she will contribute to the development of an optimized method for extracting bioactive metabolites from apple pomace. Once the optimized condition has been confirmed, different selected apple varieties will be compared based on their phytochemical and biological characteristics. In addition, her focus will be on the characterization of polyphenols for the valorisation of apple pomace.

Dr. Roberta Di Lecce is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department for Life Quality Studies of University of Bologna. Her research focuses on the development of analytical methods for the identification and quantification of molecules with biological activity in plant matrices and biological fluids. In particular, she focuses on the use of traditional and green solvents and techniques for the extraction of compounds of interest, such as ultrasound- and microwave-assisted extraction and the application of micro-sampling and micro-extraction techniques. For the development and validation of methods for the determination of bioactive molecules, she uses various chromatographic techniques, such as HPLC-UV, HPLC-FLD, and HPLC-MS/MS. She also has expertise in the structural determination of small molecules.

As part of the RAP-BIG project, she will be responsible for developing and optimizing the method for extracting active ingredients from apple pomace, experimenting with traditional and deep eutectic solvents. The optimized extraction conditions will be applied to different varieties of red apples. To determine the phytochemical characteristics of the extracts, she will develop analytical methods for the quantification of anthocyanins and other polyphenols using HPLC-UV and HPLC-MS. She will also be involved in the evaluation of biological characteristics of the extracts.

Roberto Mandrioli is Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Rimini Campus, where he coordinates the Laboratory of Pharmacological and Toxicological Analysis. His research interests include the following areas: 1) development and application of instrumental analytical methods for the determination of bioactive compounds of plant origin; 2) studies on the antioxidant activity of natural extracts; 3) monitoring of drugs and their metabolites in biological fluids; 4) forensic analysis of substances of abuse and doping agents; 5) micro-sampling techniques for the analysis of bioactive substances in complex matrices.

Within the project, your main role will be to coordinate the analytical activities applied to red apple pomace extracts in order to evaluate the effectiveness of different green solvents in the recovery of bioactive secondary metabolites. To this end, you will supervise the work of a research fellow in the selection and development of appropriate analytical methods, as well as in the evaluation of the antioxidant activity of the different extracts.