Dr Occhialini has wide research interest in many areas of plant synthetic biology and metabolic engineering of plants. The main focus of his research is to use the most precise and advanced techniques of synthetic biology to produce the next generation of “valuable plants” with an increased impact on human population. The expanding human population and the climate change imply more attention to food security. In this direction, our advance synthetic biology tools will provide a great potential to produce a new generation of crops able to produce more yield using fewer natural resources. Plants are also excellent reservoir for production of valuable compounds with positive effects on human health (nutrients and pharmaceutical molecules). The following research areas are covered: 1) improving the plant synthetic biology tool-box by a comprehensive study of genetic regulatory elements to modulate transgene expression, including: i) design of inducible synthetic promoters; ii) plant biosensors for detection of environmental dangers; iii) orthogonal switches for precise control of transgene expression; and iv) CRISPR-Cas techniques including dCas9 synthetic transcription factors to modulate promoter activity; 2) high-throughput approaches to study plant cells and to screen large libraries of genetic elements; 3) plastid metabolic engineering including crop biofortification and improving photosynthesis; 4) designing synthetic genomes ("mini-synplastomes") for more precise plastid genetic engineering; 5) installation of synthetic organelle in plant cells for biotech applications (bioreactors and nanoparticles for delivery molecules); 6) plant-to-bacterium transgene flow studies and developmental of novel synthetic biology tools to improve transgene biocontainment.