Historically, the Institute is engaged in the study of extremophilic microorganisms belonging to the Archaea and Eukarya Domains which populate the extreme environments, both of natural origin, such as polar regions, volcanoes, geothermal sources, etc., as well as those of anthropogenic origin, such as salt flats and highly polluted sites.

• Collection of extremophilic microorganisms isolated from extreme environments by the culture-dependent method;
  
• Study of microbiological biodiversity of extreme environments by means of metagenomic analysis;
• Identification and characterization of polysaccharides, enzymes, lipids and small molecules from extremophilic microorganisms for biotechnology.