Natalia Caliani

Miss Natalia Caliani

Higher Degree by Research Candidate

PhD Student

School of Agriculture, Food and Wine

Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology


My research project focuses on obtaining non-Saccharomyces yeast strain isolates and screening their resistance to different wine stressors. I will run these screenings in a chemically defined growth medium. After some promising candidates are identified, I will rerun them in grape juice. The wine industry could use the most interesting strains.

The growing interest for more interesting and innovating wine has led us to investigate wild yeast populations found on grape surfaces. These species known as non-Saccharomyces, seem very promising as they can contribute to improve aromas and global perception of wine. However there are still many things we do not know about these species and this project aims to investigate how they might be used to benefit the wine industry. We’d like to understand how sensitive they are to ethanol and SO2 because that is going to tell us how likely they are to survive during alcohol fermentation, and from that point deduce fermentation techniques as successive inoculations or co-inoculations to obtain better results while exploiting their potential. Their sensitivity to fungicides is also important, especially to help growers better choose the products that have the lesser effects on them, and thus improve ferments diversity and health. Nitrogen nutrition is a key aspect of fermentation kinetics, so understanding non-Saccharomyces needs will contribute in establishing supplementation schemes in order to maximise their secondary metabolites production and resilience. Communities’ evolution will be evaluated during different seasons to understand what type of relationships occur between communities, and how of them thrive and establish while other disappear.

  • Appointments

    Date Position Institution name
    2020 - ongoing PhD in Agriculture Science The University of Adelaide
    2016 - 2017 Technical/Commercial Representative Snap-on (United States)
  • Language Competencies

    Language Competency
    English Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review
    French Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review
    Spanish - Latin American Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review
  • Education

    Date Institution name Country Title
    2017 - 2019 University of Western Australia Australia MSc in Agriculture Science (with Honors)
    2007 - 2015 National University of the Littoral Argentina BSc (Hons) in Agriculture Science
  • Research Interests

  • ARFITEC RAFFIA Scholarship 2014-2015. Program between the Argentinian and French Government for Agronomists and Veterinarians. 
  • Bec.Ar Scholarship 2017-2019. Masters Degree Programs in Australia for Argentinian professionals. 
  • ARC Training Centre for Innovative Wine Production  Scholarship, commencing in April 2020. This scholarship is funded by the Australian Research Council, Industrial Transformation Research Program (IC170100008) and the University of Adelaide.

 

  • Position: PhD Student
  • Phone: 83130402
  • Email: natalia.caliani@adelaide.edu.au
  • Campus: Waite
  • Building: Wine Innovation Central, floor 3
  • Org Unit: School of Agriculture, Food and Wine

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