PhD Student: Rossella Filardi (ORCID n. 0000-0002-0016-4799)
Tutor: Prof. Stefania Arioli DeFENS
Dean: Prof. Diego Mora
Research area: Food Science and Nutrition
PhD title achieved on: 17th March 2023
Research topic: Probiotics and Food associated microorganisms: ecology, molecular and functional characterization, impact on host health.
Project Synopsis
The bacterial genera most used in probiotic products are Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. However new knowledge about the human gut microbiota has broadened the range of organisms with potential health benefits and there is a growing interest in their use as probiotic agents. Akkermansia muciniphila and Bacteroides spp., among the most abundant microbes in the large intestine, have been identified as candidates for next generation probiotics (NGPs). Despite their importance in human health, only few strains of these beneficial commensals have been described and their genomic and physiological diversity is largely unexplored. Therefore, my PhD project is aimed to set up and characterize a culture collection of NGPs strains by i) isolating bacterial strains from human fecal samples, ii) investigating the intraspecies diversity, and iii) assessing the safety and probiotic potential of selected isolates.
Project keywords
next generation probiotics, culturomics, Akkermansia muciniphila, safety, flow cytometry, cell sorting
Contacts
Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences (DeFENS)
Via Mangiagalli 25, 20133 Milano
email address: rossella.filardi@unimi.it
Sponsor
Fellowship sponsor: Università degli Studi di Milano for the standard fellowship
Publications
Publications with impact factor:
Mora D, Filardi R, Arioli S, Boeren S, Aalvink S and de Vos W M (2019). Development of omics-based protocols for the microbiological characterization of multi-strain formulations marketed as probiotics: the case of VSL#3. Microbial biotechnology 12 (6), 1371-1386.
Mattio L M, Dallavalle S, Musso L, Filardi R, Franzetti L, Pellegrino L, D’Incecco P, Mora D, Pinto A, Arioli S (2019). Antimicrobial activity of resveratrol-derived monomers and dimers against foodborne pathogens. Scientific reports 9 (1), 1-13.
Posters:
Filardi R, Martinović A, Cocuzzi R, Mora D, Arioli S. Mucin-Dependent Polymorphism of a Growing Culture of Akkermansia muciniphila DSM 22959 Revealed by Flow Cytometry. 14th International Scientific Conference On Probiotics, Prebiotics, Gut Microbiota And Health (IPC)” Prague (Czech Republic), 11 November 2020.
Martinović A,Arioli S, Filardi R, Cocuzzi R,Mora D. Development of a Strain-Specific qPCR Protocol for the Detection and Quantification of a Probiotic S. thermophilus in Fecal Samples. 14th International Scientific Conference On Probiotics, Prebiotics, Gut Microbiota And Health (IPC)” Prague (Czech Republic), 11 November 2020.
Filardi R, Gargari G, Mora D, Arioli S. Isolation, and characterization of new strains of Akkermansia muciniphila with a focus on the safety. 6th Conference on Microbial Diversity (MD2021)
Filardi R, Tytgat H, Reunanen J, De Vos W M, Mora D, Arioli S. Antibody-based flow cytometry method for the detection of Akkermansia muciniphila in complex cell suspensions. 13th International Symposium on Lactic Acid Bacteria (Lab13th 2021)
Oral communications:
Filardi R, Mora D, Arioli S, Boeren S,Aalvink S and de Vos W M. Development of omics-based protocols for the microbiological characterization of multi-strain formulations marketed as probiotics. 14th International Symposium on the Genetics of Industrial Microorganisms (GIM 2019).
Filardi R, Tytgat H, Reunanen J, De Vos W M, Mora D, Arioli S. Antibody-based flow cytometry method for the detection of Akkermansia muciniphila in complex cell suspensions. XXXIX International conference on cytometry: 2nd International Workshop on Exotic Flow CytoMetry – “The Many Faces of Flow Cytometry in Microbiology, Environment, Food, and Biotechnology” (EXOFLOWMETRY 2021)
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