Brief description
The experimental activities carried out at the MicroChem Lab in Rome focus on the analytical determination of legacy and emerging organic micropollutants and their metabolites, in order to understand their diffusion, distribution, persistence dynamics and fate in the environment. The studies performed at the MicroChem Lab aim also to study the relationships between the climate change and the spread of contaminants at global and local scale. For these purposes, the development and optimization of highly specific and sensitive analytical methodologies for the detection of chemicals at trace and sub-trace concentration levels in the environmental matrices, is required.

Environmental compartments
The experimental activities focus on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, therefore the environmental matrices of interest are: Surface waters and sediments (seas, rivers, lakes), snow/ice, soils, aquatic and terrestrial vegetation, biota.

Analytical techniques
The analytical determination of the organic micropollutants is performed by the combination of:
  - Pre-treatment methods (e.g. freeze-drying, filtration, etc.);
  - Extraction/Clean up methods (solid-phase extraction-SPE, pressurized liquid extraction-PLE, liquid-liquid extraction-LL);
  - Sensitive and selective analytical methods based on the coupling of chromatographic techniques (HPLC or GC) with fluorescence, FID-ECD and mass spectrometry detection.

Equipment
The MicroChem Lab is equipped with the following analytical tools:
 
Benchtop lyophilizer (freeze-dryer LABCONCO) 2.5 L capacity, equipped with a touchscreen display, for the pre-treatment of solid matrices subsequently extracted with PLE.
 
Solid Phase Extraction (SPE): 12 inlets solid phase extractor connected to cartridges packed with specific adsorbents for the extraction of target compounds from liquid matrices through a vacuum system.
 
Sonicator (Branson, mod. 2510) for the extraction of chemical compounds from solid matrices by using suitable solvents.
 
ASE 150 (Dionex, Thermo Scientific) to perform pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) of organic pollutants from solid matrices.
 
Speed Extractor E-916 (Buchi) to perform simultaneous pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) of 6 samples, operating in different modes.
 
Rotavapor R 100 (Buchi), equipped with an electronic interface to control the vacuum system and the recirculating chiller.
 
Gas chromatograph (Thermo Fisher, Trace 3000) coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) detector (Thermo Fisher, ISQ7000). The device is connected to an autosampler (Thermo Fisher. AI 1310) and is controlled by a Chromeleon software.
 
HPLC (quaternary pump, column Oven mod. LC-100 and Micro Pump Series 200, Perkin Elmer, USA) coupled to a fluorescence detector (Perkin Elmer Series 200a). The device is controlled by a Chromeleon Software.
 
HPLC (binary pump, Vanquish TM Core HPLC system, Thermo Scientific TM, Italy) coupled to a high-resolution mass spectrometer (Orbitrap Exploris 120, Thermo Scientific TM, Italy). The device is controlled by XcaliburSoftware (version 5.1).
 
Contact person: Dr.Luisa Patrolecco – luisa.patrolecco AT cnr.it

Marine biologist and oceanographer, Serena got three degrees from different universities: the undergraduate in Biological Sciences at the University of Genova, the master in marine biology at the University Politecnica delle Marche in Ancona, another master in 'Applied Physical Oceanography' at the University of Malta. She studied in detail the algae reproduction as well as the anchovies reproduction, while her specialisation as a marine biologist was about the study of the Sperm whales' acoustic. She wanted to protect the oceans and who lives in them, therefore in Malta she specialised into the study of the plastic pollution, with the use of a drone, deriving from an oceanic input as well as from humans, as a definition of a non education about the environment. Furthermore, her desire to know more in detail about other cetaceans species brought her for different summer seasons to Husavik, Iceland, working as a whale watching guide. From the humpback whales and the blue whales to the curiosity of knowing more about the ice, while looking at the glaciers in Iceland. Since then, she became a PhD student at the University of Ca' Foscari of Venice, in collaboration with the University of Milan-Bicocca, where she is studying the RICE ice core, in particular the fossils that she is finding into the core and the reason why they are there.

He is interested in determining rates of aquatic processes involving sediment particles, using radioactive tracers and time-series sediment traps. Particle dynamics is then applied to the study of the effects of climate change on the marine and polar environment, such as: a) biogeochemical cycles of organic C and biogenic silica in the Southern Ocean, Fram Strait and Mediterranean Sea; b) Late Quaternary paleoceanographic reconstructions using biogenic and radionuclide components; c) estimates of atmospheric CO2 growth rate in remote and polar ocean; c) particle transport by dense water cascading down to the deep marine realm; e) historical reconstruction of the sediment pollution of lacustrine and coastal environments in highly populated and remote polar areas.
Participation at EC and national projects. PI of projects funded by industry and ONR. PI or WP leader in Antarctica and Arctic projects. CNR scientific contact in EU-ARICE and EU-INTERACT III. Experience >30 years of oceanographic campaigns with 90 participations (18 as Chief Scientist) in the Mediterranean, Atlantic, Southern Ocean and Arctic ocean. Scientific coordinator of marine activities during 2 Italian expeditions in Antarctica. He is the pro-tempore Director of the Institute of Polar Sciences of the Italian CNR (CNR-ISP).
He is author or co-author of ca. 100 scientific papers published on ISI journals with Impact Factor, ca. 60 scientific papers published on no-ISI journals, 7 chapters of book, 30 technical reports and cruise reports. Citation number amounts to about 2500, with a Hirsch factor (h-factor) of 27 (font Scopus).

Scopus - Author ID: 6603776561    Research Gate    Google Scholar

She got her Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences at the University of Messina in 2006. Actually, she is member of the Committee for the Collection and Management of Antarctic samples of the PNRA-MIUR, and of the Executive Committee of the CUR for the study of Extreme Environments and Extremophiles Francesco Maria Faranda (University of Messina).
She collaborated with the University of Messina for the scientific management of the Italian Collection of Antarctic Bacteria of the National Antarctic Museum (CIBAN-MNA).
She participated to sampling campaigns in Antarctic and Arctic areas, as well as to oceanographic cruises in the Mediterranean. She is actively involved in national and international research projects in the fields of microbial ecology (diversity and function of prokaryotes) of polar environments, biotechnology of cold-adapted bacteria (e.g.,. search for xenobiotic degraders and biomolecule producers) and bacterial interactions. She is particularly interested in the bacterial association with benthic filter-feeders, and in the relationships between prokaryotes and chemical contamination.
She is author or co-author of more than 70 papers in international peer-reviewed journals, among which Physics of Life Reviews, Scientific Reports, Biotechnology Advances, Science of the Total Environment, Soil Biology and Biochemistry, PLOS One, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Microbial Ecology, and several book chapters. She is peer-reviewer for international journals on ecology and microbiology, and scientific reviewer for project proposals for international polar agencies. She is member of the open-access journals Microorganisms (Section Microbial Biotechnology) and Diversity (Section Microbial Diversity), and Review Editor for “Frontiers in Marine Sciences: Marine Biotechnology”.

Scopus - Author ID: 57202031230    http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8842-083X    Research Gate: Angelina Lo Giudice