I am marine biologist specializing in the study of plankton and ecological risk assessment in marine-coastal environment . Currently, I am senior researcher at ISPRA (Institute for Environmental Protection and Research), where I direct the Functional Biology and Plankton Genomics Lab. For over two years, I co-direct the joint Sino-Italian Lab. of Functional Biology of Marine Biota  with the Zhejiang Ocean University (PRC), for which I am also associated professor, since 15 years. My research is focused on the physiology and genomics of marine plankton, with particular attention to the effects of contaminants. More recently, my interest is  focused on the biotechnological application of microbiome associated with marine plankton, in particular, copepods. I have been principal investigator (PI) in various international projects and actually, I am PI  for AQuaBioS project, funded by the Interreg Italy-France Maritime program. The project aims to develop a sustainable aquaculture system based on the use of the natural food chain, with the aim to reduce any environmental impact and to promote marine biodiversity. With more than 100 publications on international peer-reviewed journals, including 2  in Nature,  the scientific production ranges from physiology and ecology studies  on  marine plankton to the genomics and functional biology of bacteria and fungi associated with plankton. This last approach may open  new applicative  perspectives in the blue biotechnology field.