Serra Immacolata

Dr. Immacolata Serra serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences at the University of Milano-Bicocca, leading the IndBioTech Lab (#SerraLab_BtBs) focused on sustainable microbial bioprocesses for chemical and biofuel production from residual biomasses.

Her research program centers on:

• Exploitation of microbial biodiversity for chemical/biofuel synthesis
• Up-cycling of residual biomasses into single cell oils and lactic acid
• Characterization of osmotic stress and enzymatic activities in marine yeasts
• Biotransformations using immobilized enzymes and whole-cell systems
• Seawater-based biocatalytic reaction engineering

Recent publications (2016-2022) reveal consistent contributions to circular bioeconomy concepts, including organic acid production from microbial fermentations, lipid generation from industrial food waste, enzymatic cascade reactions for pharmaceuticals, and marine yeast applications in green chemistry—demonstrating integration of metabolic engineering with industrial biotechnology.

The IndBioTech Lab provides specialized facilities for microbial culturing, enzyme characterization, and bioreactor optimization, supporting both fundamental research in marine microbiology and applied projects in waste valorization.