She has a Bachelorï¿½s degree in Food Scienceand Technology and a PhD in Food Science from the University of Udine. She focuses on application of molecular methods to food microbiology. She has long experience in monitoring, with traditional and molecular methods, the ecology of fermented food. Moreover, she develops PCR-based methods to detect and characterize food-pathogens, as well as food-spoilers, without the need of traditional isolation. In addition she follows food fermentations sampling directly DNA and/or RNA from the microorganisms involved in the transformations. At now the main research fields in which she is involved are the study of stress response in Lactobacillus casei group, and the study of bacteria and yeast to improve the quality of wines. She is a co-author of more than 100 papers published on national and international journals.