To describe the rules of assembly of microbial communities. To achieve predictive capacity on the function of such communities, given their composition. This will allow determination of the conditions that favor particular combinations of species able to fulfill specific goals in biotechnological, clinical, and ecological scenarios.

Our laboratory is committed to understanding how bacteria that inhabit natural niches sense and process multiple environmental signals into distinct responses –both at the level of single cells and as a community. Unlike laboratory settings, in which growth conditions can be controlled and changed one at a time, bacteria in the environment must perpetually make decisions between activating metabolic genes for available, frequently mixed C-sources and those for escaping or adapting to physicochemical stress.

Our group is interested in different aspects of Bioinformatics, Computational Biology and Systems Biology. Our goal is to obtain new biological knowledge with an "in-silico" approach which complements the "in-vivo" and "in-vitro" methodologies of Biology. This mainly involves mining the massive amounts of information stored in biological databases. Besides our lines of scientific research, we also collaborate with experimental groups providing them with bioinformatics support for their specific needs, and participate in different teaching projects.

Our group is interested in the relationship between virus and cancer

Relationship between chemical composition and flavour. Emergent techniques for food characterization.

Study of dietary lipid components that can improve health and prevent diseases. - Characterization of fatty foods (special attention to olive and argan oils). - Activity of foods and ingredients on lipid metabolism, insulin resistance and its deleterious effects (oxidative damage and inflammation, diabetes, atherosclerosis, cancer, Alzheimer's). - Analysis and obtaining of bioactive components. Phenolics (hydroxytyrosol and oleuropein), triterpenes (oleanolic, maslinic, ursolic, betulinic, uvaol and erythrodiol), mannitol, squalene, etc.

Promoting, guiding and strengthening scientifc and technological research in plant foods and food products/byproducts in accordance with criteria of diversification and enviromental protection. Vegetable Protein Group provides expertise in the development of methods for protein hydrolysates and high protein fractions production with specific biological activity. Partners involved in biotechnology and food production or the development of new technologies applied to nutrition are welcome to establish partnerships and jointly develop new formulations based on bioactive peptides.

Development of new oilseeds for food and industrial applications. Study of lipids biosynthetic pathways in plants.

Study, purifiction and characterization of bioactive compounds from plant products

Improvement of plant oils production and quality, not only in their nutritional characteristics but also in their organoleptic and technological properties, as well as studies on their authenticity using DNA molecular markers. To achieve that, genomic, molecular, biochemical, and metabolic approaches are performed.