Description

The Institute of Molecular Chemistry (ICB) fosters the chemical study in any sector of life science and sustainable use of natural resources, occupying a multi-disciplinary area in which the methods and approaches of organic and bio-organic chemistry are applied to biology, microbiology, ecology, pharmacology, medicine and environmental protection. The mission of the Institute concerns the research and development of chemical reactions and organic molecules of interest in biology and sustainability, with the aim of understanding their function and exploring their applications. The Institute is also an updated technological hub for the research and development of small molecules and biotechnological processes. The ICB was born on February 15, 2002, from the union of 3 former Institutes and 3 Centers of CNR but the original core dates back to the late sixties. In the present form, the Institute is composed of more than 100 units of personnel distributed in four branches including the institutional headquarters in Pozzuoli at the north of Naples and 3 sections in Catania, Padua, and Sassari. ICB possesses the chemical and biological know-how essential for R&D in the bio-medical, agro-food, biotechnology, and green-economy sectors by virtue of many years of experience in chemical synthesis, supramolecular chemistry, microscopy, cellular and molecular biology, biochemistry, chromatography and extraction, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and other spectroscopic techniques, mass spectrometry and related techniques (mass cytometry, gas chromatography and liquid chromatography coupled with mass-mass analysis), fermentation and enzymatic catalysis from laboratory scale to large industrial reactors and photobioreactors.

The mission of the Institute concerns the research and development of chemical reactions and organic molecules of interest in biology and sustainability, with the aim of understanding their function and exploring their applications. The Institute promotes basic and applied research through national and international projects with public and private collaborators in favor of scientific and social progress in 1) Health (new drug candidates from natural products, development, and optimization of bioactive molecules, mechanisms of action of bioactive molecules, physiological and pathological functions); 2) Energy (biofuels and hydrogen); 3) Environment (chemical ecology, biological invasion, recycling of potentially polluting industrial waste products); 4) Agriculture and Food Industry (study and amelioration of species with nutritional value, identification of active principles for the nutraceutical, cosmetic and veterinary use); Biotechnology (biocatalysis, whole-cell processes, use of extremophiles and microalgae, biomass production).

ICB possesses the know-how and updated infrastructures for R&D in the bio-medical, agro-food, biotechnology, and green-economy sectors by virtue of many years of experience in chemical synthesis, supramolecular chemistry, pharmacology, cellular biology, chemical and enzymatic catalysis, biosynthesis and metabolism, biochemistry, extraction techniques, chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance and other spectroscopic methods, mass spectrometry and related techniques (mass cytometry, gas and liquid chromatography coupled with mass-mass analysis), NMR- and MS-based metabolomics and lipidomics, fluorescent and isotope-labeled probes, microscopy, whole-cell transformation and fermentation from laboratory scale to large industrial reactors and photobioreactors.
This expertise contributes to the formation of five major research platforms committed to innovative programs in:
1) Human Health
drug discovery, medicinal chemistry, neuroscience, cancer research, molecular immunology, preclinical development of drug candidates, microbiome, ex vivo and in vivo model;
2) Sustainable Energy
biofuels, hydrogen from catalytic and biological processes;
3) Environment
chemical ecology, biological invasion, recycling of potentially polluting industrial waste products;
4) Agriculture and Food
novel foods, amelioration of species with nutritional value, active natural ingredients for the nutraceutical, cosmetic and veterinary use;
5) Biotechnology
valorization of agro-food residues, biotransformation by extremophilic bacteria and enzymes, platforms for CO2-capture and valorization, biomass and bioproducts from marine microalgae and protists.