Grape Founders - Grape • Gruppo Ricerche Avanzato Per l'Enologia

Simona Campolongo

Co-founder, President and CEO of the company, Simona Campolongo is in charge of the microbiological and biotechnology sectors of Grape. She has a degree in Industrial Biotechnology and she takes care of microbiological analyses in grapes and wines. She obtained the PhD title in February 2011 with a thesis on Brettanomyces bruxellensis, a dangerous yeast of great oenological interest.
During the PhD and Post-Doc years, Simona worked in the research group of Prof. Luca Cocolin (University of Turin, DISAFA) where she studied the microbial ecology of wines, the development of strategies to control the spread of Brettanomyces bruxellensis yeasts in wines, and the optimization of rapid and cost-effective methods for its detection before the onset of wine alterations.

Currently, Simona is the main member of Grape and she takes care of the main strategic choices as well as of managing the administrative roles and the research and development laboratory.

Chiara Pagliarani Co-founder of Grape, MD and manager of the viticultural and biotechnology sector from 2011 to 217. Master degree in Plant Biotechnology obtained in 2007 at the University of Torino. PhD in Agriculture, Forest and Food Sciences obtained in 2011 at the University of Torino with a thesis entitled ‘Molecular and innovative approaches to assess water stress responses and flavonoid accumulation in grape’. Post Doc researcher at the PlantStressLab of DISAFA-UNITO (supervisor Prof. Schubert). During the PhD and Post-Doc years, part of her research activities were also dedicated to the assessment of non-destructive spectroscopic tools (FT-NIR, Multiplex®) applied to the qualitative and quantitative analysis of anthocyanins and flavonols in grape berries. Her main scientific interests concern the study of physiological and molecular responses of woody plants (grapevine, poplar) to abiotic and biotic stresses. Currently, she is a permanent research scientist at the Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection of the Italian National Research Council (IPSP-CNR), where she deals with the characterization of genotype by environment interactions and with the analysis of grapevine responses to stress induced by transcriptome-reprogramming events and/or controlled by small RNAs (http://www.ipsp.cnr.it/researchers/pagliarani-chiara/?lang=en)

Fabrizio Torchio

CO-founder of Grape. MD and manager of the wine sector from 2011 to 2020, Fabrizio got his Master degree in Viticulture and Oenology at the University of Turin in 2006.
During the PhD and Post-Doc years, spent in the research group of Prof. Vincenzo Gerbi (DISAFA, UNITO), he acquired wide expertise in the development of rapid analytical methods for the study of the secondary metabolites characterizing grapes and wines. He also participated in several research projects aimed at monitoring the shelf-life of sparkling wines and applying innovative techniques able to enhance the transfer of peculiar cultivar sensory features from grapes to wine.