P02 - AZTI
As a technological institute for marine and food research, AZTI is a non-profit private foundation committed to the social and economical development of the marine environment, fish and food sector. With 28 years expertise in those fields, it offers specialised services to more than 300 companies per year concerning to: Applied research and technology development, technical advice and consulting, analysis and testing, technological training and dissemination. AZTI is part of Tecnalia Corporation, has 240 professional staff and is structured in two research divisions: (1) Food Research, and (2) Marine Research. The Food Research Division consists of 85 people, distributed in four main areas of specialisation and technological expertise. Researchers involved in this proposal are part of the Food Safety and Quality area. They are a multidisciplinary group made of specialists on the chemical and biochemical analysis of foodstuffs, investigating the development of new materials and of novel techniques for the rapid determination of food contaminants. The team has developed alternative toxicity tests specific for food ingredients using zebrafish embryos, pioneering the application of this alternative model in Food Research. The wide experience of the research group includes the participation in several European projects related with food safety: RISKFOODCONT (Safefoodera), GOODFOOD (IP-FP6), MAP-MILLING (Collective Research Project-FP6). The extensive background of the research group will contribute in this proposal to the development of fast screening methods and the study of toxic effects on complex matrices.
Key personnel involved
Alejandro Barranco obtained his PhD in Chemistry from the University of the Basque Country (Spain) after working on the development of new analytical methods for the determination of contaminants (PAHs) in foods (edible oils and fats). He has 19 peer-review publications dealing with the optimization of new methods for the determination of contaminants and natural products in food and boasts a solid expertise in biosensors, chromatography, analysis of residues in food and methods validation.
Sandra Rainieri Msc in Biological Sciences (University of Parma, Italy); PhD in Food Biotechnology (University of Bologna, Italy), boasts 18 years of research experience in molecular biology and molecular toxicology both in Universities and Research Institutes. She has published more than 30 research articles in international journals and 3 books chapters in the field of Food Biotechnology and Food Safety. She is currently leading the food toxicology group at AZTI-Tecnalia and is dedicated to studying the toxic effects of food contaminants in realistic conditions mainly using a toxicogenomic approach.
Elisa Jiménez (PhD) has been working at AZTI-Tecnalia Food Research Division as Senior Researcher since 2008. She holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of the Basque Country (Spain). Her expertise focuses on the development of detection systems based on molecular biology, as well as DNA microarray development. She has participated in fourteen research publications in international journal as well as in four patents. Her work at AZTI-Tecnalia has focused on the development of genotyping systems applied to food authentication and traceability, as well as aptamer-based detection systems.
