People and research topics
Alberto Sabbioni
- Scientific Advisor of Azienda Stuard within a PSR Project
Title: “InnoVaDiv: Strategie Innovative per la conservazione e la Valorizzazione della bioDiversità animale della provincia di Parma”
Brief description: The project aims to study and provide tools for the conservation of three native breeds from the Parma region (Nero di Parma pig breed, Cornigliese sheep breed, and Tacchino di Parma e Piacenza turkey breed) via the use of novel technologies such as genomic data.
- Scientific advisor of ANAREAI within a PSRN Project
Title: “Equinbio.2 PSNR 2020/2024 – Sottomisura 10.2”
Brief description: The project aims to study from a genetic and phenotypic point of view the Italian equine and donkey genetic pools via the use pedigree data, novel molecular technologies such as genomic data as well as Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) tools to evaluate novel traits in horses.
Andrea Summer
Title: “Implementation of sheep production system of minor dairy breeds through community-based breeding, genomics and phenomics: the example of Delle Langhe breed”
Brief description: Development of accurate methods for measuring new phenotypes related to the milk coagulation aptitude of sheep milk; identification of genomic associations with the traits of interest (proteins and cheese-making aptitude) to be applied in the development of specific selection programs for the Delle Langhe sheep breed.
Title: “LATTE.DOC Best practice aziendali per migliorare le caratteristiche del latte per la produzione di formaggi”
Brief description: The objective of the LATTE.DOC project is to enhance the knowledge, skills, and capabilities at the technical, executive, and economic levels of the agricultural businesses associated with the Santangiolina Latte, with the broader aim of increasing the competitiveness and sustainability of the entire dairy supply chain.
- Collaboration with ANAFIBJ
Title: “Genetic diversity in the Italian Holstein breed”
Brief description: Evaluation of inbreeding based on both pedigree and genomic information and estimation of inbreeding depression.
Claudio Cipolat-Gotet
Title: “ARIES: Advanced research on the impact of environment on sheep”
Brief description: The overarching goal of the ARIES project is to contribute with specific knowledge and innovative tools to the Italian dairy sheep industry for improving its efficiency and sustainability while guarantying animal resilience.
Title: “DonKeyWorld: a comprehensive study on Equus asinus from biodiversity management to milk nutraceutical and technological properties”
Brief description: The overarching goal of the “DonKeyWorld project is to generate fundamental knowledge on the Italian donkey sector potentially impacting worldwide.To reach this overall goal, the main gaps still present in the donkey sector will be addressed. Those gaps can be summarized as follow: I) difficulty to manage genetic/genomic variability due to the absence of a genotyping platform with known polymorphic markers (SNP, Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) for this species, II) lack of a comprehensive characterization of donkey milk towards its nutraceutical and technological properties on large sample size.
Title: “Regenemilk: Strategie e tecniche innovative per il monitoraggio e il trattamento
della mastite in razze locali e cosmopolite”
Brief description: The REGENEMILK project aims to develop innovative strategies and techniques to monitor and suggest new intervention methods for mastitis in both local and cosmopolitan dairy cattle breeds raised in the Emilia-Romagna region. The project seeks to demonstrate the effectiveness of a biological product, Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP), as an alternative to the commonly used pharmacological treatment.
- International Fragrances and Flavor (IFF)
The aim of the present agreement is to characterize aspartic protease (e.g. chymosin) variants and commercial reference materials by testing performance in milk coagulation and cheese yield under specific process conditions.
- Consorzio Parmigiano Reggiano DOP
The aim of the present agreement is to characterize the natural milk creaming in the Parmigiano Reggiano PDO production and to propose a laboratory model to assess this milk pre-treatment.
Massimo Malacarne
Title: “Integration of novel phenotyping and omics approaches for the sustainable management and breeding of autochthonous cattle genetic resources”
Brief description: Determination of novel phenotypes concerning composition and processing quality on milk samples collected from autochthonous cattle breeds of the Emilia Romagna Region. Integration of these milk quality traits with omics data obtained on the same milk samples.
Federico Righi
Title: “The relevance of iodine in human nutrition: filling the gap from the farm to the fork”
Brief description: From cow milk to consumer health: a multidisciplinary approach to study the role of milk in the prevention of human iodine deficiency. The "Da-I-ry" project aims to study the presence of iodine in the dairy supply chain of the Veneto region and assess the impact of using dairy products to increase iodine levels in certain population groups. The proposal will be structured into three research areas, employing a multidisciplinary approach that integrates scientific expertise from the fields of veterinary medicine, agriculture, and human medicine: (i) studying the phenotypic and genetic variability of iodine in cow's milk; (ii) investigating iodine variation in dairy products; (iii) assessing the effects of consuming iodine-fortified dairy products on consumer health.
Michela Ablondi
- PON “Ricerca e Innovazione”
Title: “EquiDiversity Salvaguardia della biodiversità e sviluppo sostenibile delle razze equine italiane”
Brief description: EquiDiversity aims to enhance the genetic resources of the Italian equine sector to preserve biodiversity in the long term and ensure more sustainable animal husbandry, aligning with the actions outlined in the National Research Program (PNR) for environmental sustainability. Specifically, the project plans to phenotype and genotype the rich Italian equine heritage, consisting of 20 breeds, each closely linked to a specific geographical area and sociocultural context.
Title: “Additional resources to study the Equine heritage based on genotype data”
Brief description: This project is embedded within the current project of the PI named EquiDiversity and it aims to obtain additional resources for the aforementioned project as explicitly required by the call. Some of the specific objects are the integration of genotype data via an ad-hoc sampling of local horse breeds, calculation of inbreeding from genotype data and evaluation of effective population size trends, highlight specific genes under adaptive or directional selection in different breeds and underline peculiar breed genomic-based characteristics.
- Collaboration with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences within the FORMAS project
Title: “Genetics and genomics of highly flexible horses - a comparison with hypermobility syndromes”
Brief description: In the planned study, we aim to describe the association between equine performance and phenotypes seen in collagen deficiencies and joint laxity syndromes. Identification of genetic markers or causative mutations in such regions could provide new tools in horse breeding to select for healthy, sustainable, and better performing horses.
Giulia Esposito
Title: “Deep Whole Genome Sequencing of bulk milk for sustainable cattle productions (DeepMilk)”
Brief description: The research proposal aims to combine innovative tools with routine techniques, to advance and pioneer dairy cattle farming and sustainability. Milk phenotypes that will be investigated will be chosen among the most relevant molecules with important biological role in terms of production, health and welfare and sustainability.
Title: Studying pig domestication in Italy using whole genome sequencing from aDNA.
Brief description: The aim of the project is to provide a comprehensive and powerful genomic study integrating ancient, historic and modern pig DNA from whole genome sequencing analysis. The study will allow to quantify the loss of genetic diversity in time from ancient to historic and modern local pigs.
Giorgia Stocco
- PON “Ricerca e Innovazione”
Title: “Strategie di valorizzazione e miglioramento dell’efficienza casearia del latte ovino nel rispetto della biodiversità”
Brief description: The current project proposal aims to use innovative tools to generate new scientific knowledge and propose new technological tools for improving the milk's suitability for cheese production. This involves integrating genomic information with data related to the minerals in the milk of Comisana and Massese sheep breeds.
Title: “Additional resources to study multi-functional traits in milk from indigenous sheep breeds”
Brief description: This project is embedded within the current project of the PI named “Strategie di valorizzazione e miglioramento dell’efficienza casearia del latte ovino nel rispetto della biodiversità and it aims to obtain additional resources” for the aforementioned project as explicitly required by the call. Some of the specific objects are to characterize the detailed mineral composition and fat globule size on already existent individual milk samples from two local dairy sheep breeds, quantify the effect of animal-related factors on the variability of these novel phenotypes in ovine milk, and study the effect of minerals and fat globules on the technological properties and on the efficiency of cheese-making process.
