Team 4 has as its main goal the development of innovative (nano)bioproducts through cascade processing according to the value pyramid, of sub-/co-products from the bioeconomy, within biorefinery technologies, with the following applications: - Applications in agriculture and environmental protection (development of biostimulants and biofertilizers, especially through (nano)(bio)technologies - including those based on microalgae and CO2 capture) - Applications in the food industry (new products and food ingredients, obtained especially based on fermentative processes involving microbial consortia and through biomass processing) - Applications in maintaining health (nutritional supplements, medical devices, cosmetics) Team 4 is multidisciplinary (3 biochemists, 4 chemists, 1 physicist, 5 engineers - of which 2 chemical engineers, 1 petroleum engineer, 1 food engineer and 1 biotechnologist) and includes 10 members with a doctorate and 3 doctoral students. The team's activity benefits from the support of a technician. In recent years, Team 4 has managed to modernize and set up a series of new laboratories: - 2 microbiology laboratories (one of which is food microbiology) - 1 photosynthetic organism physiology laboratory - 1 biochemistry and biophysics laboratory - 1 cell biology and molecular biology laboratory - 1 physicochemical analysis laboratory Microbiology activities are accompanied by the development and maintenance of a Collection of microorganisms (beneficial and pathogenic bacteria; yeasts; filamentous fungi, beneficial and phytopathogenic; microalgae) - own strains (resulting from bioprospecting activities), strains obtained through inter-academic exchange and strains purchased from international strain collections. The team's multidisciplinary expertise and infrastructure allow for the inter- and trans-disciplinary implementation of multiple techniques and fields: (bio)chemistry (including enzymology), biophysics, molecular and cell biology, microbiology, biotechnology, phytopathology, chemical engineering, materials engineering. One of the goals of Team 4 is to develop and implement new techniques and new methods of analysis and investigations, as well as new research directions, for a better cascade processing of by-/co-products in the bioeconomy. Since its establishment, the team has managed to implement techniques and research directions previously not addressed at the institutional level, such as biochemistry and molecular biology techniques (electrophoresis, PCR, protein chromatography), cell biology (bioassays on mammalian cells), biophysics (biocalorimetry). Team 4 has a doctoral supervisor, Dr. habil. CS I Florin Oancea, biochemist, with a PhD in phytopathology - plant protection and qualified in biostimulants integrated into the circular bioeconomy at the Doctoral School of Plant and Animal Resources Engineering (IRVA) - Biotechnologies within USAMV Bucharest. The team also has 2 members in various doctoral supervision committees at the University of Bucharest and USAMV Bucharest (PhD Chem. CS I Diana Constantinescu-Aruxandei, PhD Biochem. CS I Carmen Lupu). In the last 5 years, 4 members of the team have completed their doctoral theses, with “Summa cum laude”, benefiting from significant logistical support from the team and the institute. Details and images from the doctoral theses, as well as other achievements of the team, can be found in the Other section.