Microbial Biotechnology; Biorefinery; Enzymes; Residual biomasses; Biocatalysis; Metabolic engineering

The main research interests are:

- Exploitation of microbial biodiversity for the production of chemicals, biofuels and enzymes. In particular, one research line concerns the up-cycling of residual biomasses by microbial bioprocesses for the production, for instance, of single cell oils and lactic acid.  Dr. Serra research activity has dealt also with the characterization of osmotic stress in marine yeasts and in S. cerevisiae by flow cytometry techniques, the identification of enzymatic activities of biocatalytic interest in marine yeasts and the optimization of growth conditions of marine yeasts in order to maximize the expression of the enzymes of interest.

- Biotransformations catalyzed both by isolated enzymes (soluble and immobilized) and by whole cells. Identification, cloning, heterologous expression, characterization and immobilization of enzymes for biocatalytic purposes and their use in batch and flow systems.