II
Biotechnology to Build a Brighter Future II
February 28th 2025 9AM (GMT) Online
Food, Health and Environmental Applications
Sponsoring Projects
Get to Know Them
The B3iS project - Biodiversity and bioprospecting of biosurfactants in saline environments - aims to discover new biosurfactants from saline and hypersaline environments, which will have a major impact on the expansion of its market and applications in various industries, in addition to contribute to the circular bioeconomy. Extremophiles are excellent sources of new molecules with unique properties, including biosurfactants. Two strategies were used to fully exploit the microbial diversity of the selected environments (salt flats in Spain and Portugal), namely through (a) a culture-dependent approach, which consisted of the isolation of extremophiles that were screened for the production of biosurfactants and sequencing their genomes to proceed with a functional analysis and possibly to identify the genes that encode their production; and (b) a culture-independent approach, which consisted of extracting the total genomic DNA from the microbial communities in the selected environments, which were used to build metagenomic libraries that subsequently underwent functional screening to identify clones producing biosurfactants. The chemical structure of the produced biosurfactants was determined to verify that they are new molecules. In that case, the genes involved in its biosynthesis were investigated. Finally, the properties of the new biosurfactants were studied to evaluate their possible applications.
PTDC/BII-BIO/5554/2020
Be@t - Bioeconomy at Textiles - is an innovative project dedicated to optimizing and modulating microbial fermentation bioprocesses, enzymatic hydrolysis, and alternative technologies such as ohmic treatment, high-pressure processing, ultrasound, pulsed electric fields, and ohmic heating. These advanced techniques are applied to enhance the production of valuable (bio)products with potential applications in the textile industry.
One of the keys focuses of Be@t is the production of biosurfactants—functional compounds of high interest to the textile sector. Among them, rhamnolipids stand out as promising, naturally derived surfactants. These molecules are produced by certain bacterial species, notably Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is being employed as a biocatalyst in Be@t’s processes. The project explores the use of industrial waste, particularly hydrophobic by-products from the extraction and utilization of oils and fats in the food industry, as sustainable feedstocks for biosurfactant production.
02/C12-i01.01/2022.P1
Beauty and healthy skin are important indicators of the life quality for the current society. The use of prebiotic compounds, such as biosurfactants produced by lactic acid bacteria, in the formulation of cosmetic products could be a natural way to correct imbalances in the skin microbiota. The natural skin microbiota prevents the colonization of pathogenic organisms, whether by competing for nutrients, secreting chemicals against them, or stimulating the skin's immune system. In addition, it was demonstrated that prebiotic biosurfactants exhibit better anti-microbial, anti-adhesive, emulsifying, among other properties than chemical surfactants used in the formulation of cosmetic products. Thus, the objective of ValBioDerm project - Validation of prebiotic biosurfactants produced by lactic acid bacteria for dermic applications - is to validate the prebiotic biosurfactants produced by different strains of Lactobacilli using different approaches: a) in vitro - assessing cytotoxicity on skin cells and dermal irritation in reconstructed human epidermis models; and b) in vivo - determining their skin tolerance in volunteers under normal conditions of use, for their possible incorporation into the cosmetic field, specifically for dermal applications.
This research is part of the Framework Collaboration Agreement between the University of Vigo (Spain) and the University of Minho (Portugal)
