Period: 12-25 July 2014

Venue: Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences, University of Milan, via Mangiagalli 25, I-20133 Milan Italy.

The University of Milan (UMIL, also known in Italy as ‘La Statale’) is one of the major Italian universities and member of the LERU, League of European Research Universities.

The Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences (DeFENS) is one of the largest departments of UMIL, founded in 2011 from the fusion of different Departments leading in Food Science and Technology, Molecular Sciences and Plant Protection Sciences. DeFENS counts at present 81 professors and assistant professors, 40 technicians and 15 administrative employees. A consistent part of the faculty staff is dedicated to microbiology and in particular to environmental microbiology.

The team at DeFENS-UMIL organizing FACILIS-2014, is the coordinating member of the recently ended European 7th Framework Project ULIXES, dedicated to unravel, categorize, catalogue, exploit and manage the microbial diversity available in the Mediterranean Sea for bioremediation of polluted marine sites (http://www.ulixes.unimi.it). The DeFENS-UMIL working group involved in ULIXES has a strong and long lasting experience and background in microbiology and molecular ecology applied to the study of polluted environments (soils and waters). The study of microbial communities associated to plants aimed at the development of agricultural biotechnologies and phytoremediation is, moreover, another scientific field of investigation of the group. Molecular ecology, genomics and metagenomics tools are regularly exploited, together with standard microbiology techniques, in all the ongoing research projects.

The course will be held at the scientific pole of UMIL (named “Città Studi”), where many of the scientific faculties of UMIL are located. Città Studi is located close to the city centre, and well connected by public transports to sites of interest within the city and the surroundings and to the three international airports of the area. Students and speakers will be hosted in guesthouse residences of UMIL located downtown and within Città Studi, and the laboratory activities will be held in the same area in teaching laboratories specifically dedicated to microbiological research.