PhD student profile, Dea Korcari

PhD Student: Dea Korcari

Tutor: Prof. Diego Mora, DEFENS

Co-tutor: Prof. Maria Grazia Fortina, DEFENS

Dean: Prof. Ella Pagliarini

Research area: Food Science and Nutrition

PhD title achieved on: 2^nd March 2022

Research topic

Development of new systems of biopreservation for the safety and shelf life of food.

Project Synopsis

The aim of this project is to characterise the native microbial communities of fermented food matrixes, in terms of composition and metabolic activities. The typical microbiota of different natural fermentations will be described phenotypically and from a genetic and genomic point of view. Highly performing bacterial and yeast strains will be then selected for the design of starter cultures that confer particular technological, nutritional and sensorial properties to final products, in order to improve their safety, stability and overall quality.

Project keywords

Fermented food, Lactic acid bacteria, Yeasts, Polyphasic characterization.

Contacts

Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences (DeFENS)

Via Mangiagalli 25, 20133 Milano, Italy

dea.korcari@unimi.it

Sponsor

Fellowship sponsor: Università degli Studi di Milano

Publications

Publications with impact factor

Quattrini, M., Korcari, D., Ricci, G., & Fortina, M. G. (2019). A polyphasic approach to characterize Weissella cibaria and Weissella confusa strains. Journal of Applied Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.1111/jam.14483

Korcari, D., Ricci, G., Quattrini, M., & Fortina, M. G. (2019). Microbial consortia involved in fermented spelt sourdoughs: dynamics and characterization of yeasts and Lactic Acid Bacteria. Letters in Applied Microbiology. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/lam.13241

National and International Conference proceedings

Korcari, D., Quattrini, M., Ricci, G., Fortina, M. G. (2019). Microbial communities associated with spelt sourdoughs. Microbial Diversity Conference 2019, Catania, Italy, 25-27^th September 2019. Poster presentation.

Korcari, D. (2019). Investigating the biodiversity in spontaneous fermentations as a source of high-performance microorganisms. XXIV Workshop on the Developments in the Italian PhD Research on Food Science, Technology and Biotechnology, Firenze, Italy, 11-13^th September 2019. Poster presentation.