Our research group has focused on the valorization of various by-products from the wine industry, such as wine lees, grape pomace, grape seeds, and unripe grapes. We have developed innovative extraction methods and tested the resulting extracts for applications in food and winemaking.

Currently, we are particularly interested in advancing novel extraction techniques for the recovery and valorization of wine lees and yeast vinasse as sources of new food ingredients, including yeast mannoproteins, beta-glucans, and peptides.

In this area, we have already developed a thermal extraction method, currently at TRL 4, and tested the resulting extracts as emulsifiers, foaming agents, and wine stabilizers with encouraging results. Additionally, in collaboration with other institutions, we have recently explored other extraction technologies, such as ultrasounds, enzymatic, and natural deep eutectic solvents extractions.

Beyond developing or optimizing extraction methods, we are keen to expand the characterization of these extracts and explore their potential applications in the food industry. In particular, we are interested in studying the technological properties of mannoproteins as well as the functional properties of yeast-derived beta-glucans and peptides, two categories of compounds with well-documented bioactive properties.

We are eager to collaborate with international partners to further develop these lines of research and explore innovative solutions for sustainable yeast by-product valorization.

Over the last 15 years our research group carried on successful projects on by-product valorization such as: i) unripe grapes for the production of verjuice (TRL9); ii) extraction of proteins from grape seeds for their use as a fining agent in winemaking (TRL 7); iii) extraction of polysaccharides from wine lees and utilization in wine and food industries (TRL 4). In particular, for wine lees, our group has been the first to propose (in 2020) the extraction of mannoproteins from the leftover yeasts after wine alcoholic fermentation and has since developed a specific expertise on different extraction methods, on the characterization and application of these lees extracts in both the wine and food industries.

Our group has expertise in the analysis, (bio)chemical characterization, preparative fractionation and purification of yeast and wine macromolecules, including polysaccharides and proteins. We have our own means to extract, fractionate and characterize different valuable components from yeast cells. The group can take advantage of different techniques and infrastructures, such as autoclave, freeze drier, sonicators, plate readers, different chromatography systems (HPLC-DAD-RID, FPLC), electrophoresis, NMR, fluorescence spectroscopy, circular dichroism, dynamic light scattering, Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis, GC.MS, ICP-OES, Scanning Electron Microscope, Foam analyser (Mosalux), viscometer, rheometer, experimental winery.