We turn environmental samples into ecological knowledge.
Molecular methods and fieldwork to monitor biodiversity quickly, sensitively, and with minimal disturbance to ecosystems.
Detecting species without ever seeing them
Environmental DNA flips the traditional approach on its head: genetic material suspended within environmental matrices can be extracted to reveal which species are present.
The result is faster, gentler on ecosystems, and sensitive enough to catch elusive species that are hard to monitor, such as alien species in the early stages of invasion or species of conservation concern.
Real-world applications across different themes, united by the study of DNA
River Po biodiversity monitoring
We are mapping the biodiversity of Italy's "great river" through metabarcoding.
Learn more →Resilience of freshwater macroinvertebrates to summer droughts
We studied how benthic macroinvertebrate communities resist and recover from increasingly frequent drying events in alpine rivers.
Learn more →Monitoring intraspecific diversity of dung beetles with DNA metabarcoding
We used metabarcoding not only to identify dung beetle species, but the genetic variability within them.
Learn more →Reference database of Italian stoneflies
We are building a DNA barcode reference library for Italian stoneflies, to make species identification in our watercourses' metabarcoding data reliable.
Learn more →