The Market and Economics of Coffee workshop
27 April 2015 - Illycaffè s.p.a., Trieste, Italy

The IPCOS Fellows attended the Market and Economics of Coffee workshop with Dr Mauricio Galindo, President of The International Coffee Organization (ICO), and had the opportunity to meet Dr Galindo after the workshop.
Luca Redivo on this workshop:
"On the morning Dr Galindo lead us through many interesting topics, talking extensively about the effect of climate on coffee growth and its future perspectives, the gap between coffee growers and finance and what has been and is planned to be done to bridge it. He finished his lectures with introducing us to supply and demand of coffee into great lengths. After lunch we introduced him to the title of our project along with the researchers currently involved and the ones yet to join us. Dr Galindo took a great interest in the way we intend to reach the goals we have set to ourselves regarding Chlorogenic acids and their derivatives, Caffeine and its metabolites and Cafestol and 16-O-methylcafestol, along with the importance of our findings for the coffee industry. Afterwards he offered us help with any information we might need in the future. He patiently answered all of our questions about his work and functioning of the International Coffee Organization."



Coffee Cluster of EXPO2015
10 June 2015 - Milan, Italy

The Coffee Cluster was curated by Illycaffè, EXPO 2015’s official Coffee Partner, and created in collaboration with the International Coffee Organization (ICO).
The IPCOS-team and Researchers have been invited to present their work in an open event on the 10th of June. This was a great opportunity to present the IPCOS project to the public of the EXPO.

MIP Conference
26-30 June 2016 - Lund, Sweden

The IPCOS fellows attended the 9th International Conference on Molecular Imprinting (MIP2016) in Lund, Sweden, in June. The series of molecular imprinting conferences started in 2000 in Cardiff, UK. Over the past years this international conference has acted as the most important forum for researchers to exchange ideas and to network with experts in the area.
Prof. Marina Resmini, QMUL, will give an invited lecture on “Molecularly Imprinted Polymers for the detection and delivery of drugs”.
Four of the Fellows will present their posters:
“Computational selection of functional monomers for the synthesis of molecularly imprinted polymers specific for caffeine”. (Luca Redivo). Download his abstract here.
“Coffee Terpenes: Extraction and selection of functional monomers”. (Ana Oreski) Download her abstract here.
“Synthesis of p-coumaroylquinic acids and evaluation of functional monomers for a mip based sensing element” (Anggy Gutiérrez Ortíz) Download her abstract here.
“Design, synthesis and evaluation of functional monomers for detection of chlorogenic acids in coffee” (Ângelo Filipe Monteiro) Download his abstract here.

COCOTEA
25th- 28th June 2017 - Turin, Italy

In June 2017, ESR 1 Anggy Gutierrez won a grant to present and attend the COCOTEA conference in Turin. You can read about her experience in the article she wrote below:

The  COCOTEA  congress  was  a  great  experience.  I  think  that what makes this congress different to the others is the combination  between  industry  and  academia,  which  work  together in order to improve the quality and nutritional values of  these  three  food  products  (coffee,  cocoa  and  tea).  It  was very  interesting  to  be  part  of  a  multidisciplinary  community  formed  of  chemists,  food  chemists,  food  technologists,  nutritionists,  medical  doctors  and operators/technicians  from  both sectors.

On  the  first day  of  the  congress,  I  did  not  know  what  to  expect  because usually when people hear about a coffee, cocoa and tea congress they don’t expect so much scientific work, but I must  say that all the presentations were of a high scientific level. It was really interesting to hear about the research that is being  carried  out  all  around  the  world,  not  only  to  improve the  quality  of  coffee,  cocoa  and  tea  but  also  to  understand the chemistry, technology, metabolomics, nutritional aspects and   health   effects   of   these   products.   The   phenolic compound presentations particularly caught my attention. Moreover,  another  part  of  the  congress  that  I  found  very useful  were  the  poster  sessions;  there  were  approximately 200 hundred posters and I took advantage of the opportunity to talk with other PhD students and researchers who are working  with  chlorogenic  acids  and  coffee  leaves  and  we could  share  ideas.  It also enabled me to learn  a  little  bit  more about  cocoa, since before COCOTEA I really didn’t have any idea of how big and  important  the  production  and  study  of  cocoa  is  around the world.

A  very  important  day  of  the  congress,  at  least  for  me,  was the  day  of  my  presentation,  that  morning  I  was  so  excited and also a little nervous. I did my presentation trying to represent  in  the  best  way  possible  all  members  of  the  IPCOS project  and  I  am  glad  I  had  the  opportunity  to  show  our  results  to  a  small  part  of  the  coffee  community.  It was an  excellent  experience!   

On the last day of the congress we went on an industrial visit to Domori,  (an Italian based chocolate  company)  where  we  got  a better  understanding  of  cocoa  processing.  Actually,  I  was very  happy  when  they  told  us  that  cocoa  from  Venezuela  is one of their main products.  And of course, as you can imagine,  we  tasted  many  different  kinds  of  chocolate. To  conclude, I  would like to say that not only was the organization of the congress perfect but also the location was beautiful. It was  my  first  time  in  Turin  and  although  we  did  not  have  so much  time  for  a  tourist  visit,  I  can  say  that  the  city  is  very nice and I will  definitely come back.

Coming soon - MIP 2018
24th - 28th June- Jerusalem, Israel