Ilaria Serafini

Postdoctoral fellow
Biography
Dr. Ilaria Serafini, Ph.D, achieved her master degree from the University of Rome "La Sapienza" in Sciences and Technologies for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage and obtained a PhD from the same University with a thesis focused on the development of new analytical methods for the characterization and conservation of organic materials in textile artworks, up to the design of a new nanomaterial for their conservation, patented by Sapienza. Dr. Serafini collaborated with the scientific laboratories of the Vatican Museums and with the "Istituto centrale per il restauro e la conservazione del patrimonio archivistico e dei libri". Along with this, Dr. Serafini is part of the Editorial board of a peer review journal, Natural Product Research, and she was Guest Editor for the special issue focused on Natural Dyes for the Molecules Journal. The experience in a multi-technique approach, acquired during her doctorate, led her to analyze complex matrices in different fields, such as natural and synthetic dyes, tattoo ink, metabolites from plants, natural products in cosmetics. The research in this last subject has led to a further patent, being under evaluation, in the cosmetic field. She works as a research fellow at the Department of Chemistry of Sapienza University of Rome with a project entitled "Development of analytical methods for the identification of diagnostic markers in complex matrices of natural origin applied to the cultural heritage sector", within the analytical chemistry applied to cultural heritage. Currently, she is the author of 25 publications in international journals with peer review.
Research activity
Scientific area: 
Analytical chemistry
Research activity: 
The research activities, within the group of Prof. Curini, concern: - Extraction and characterization of natural dyes from artistic materials, focusing in particular to textile materials from historical tapestries and cellulosic materials. Fundamental part is the development of clean up methods for the analysis of organic dyes through LC-MS / MS experiments, also in high resolution. - Development and evaluation of the performance of nano-composite products for the consolidation of historic tapestries and cellulosic materials; - Isolation and identification of synthetic dyes and binders in contemporary works of art; -Isolation and characterization of tattoo inks, for the assessment of the risk to health; - Development of innovative systems for the identification of trace compounds through multi-technical systems; - Isolation and characterization of secondary metabolites in plant matrices.

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