Group Leader/s
Head of lab
intro
The problem of environmental pollution generated by the massive use of plastic materials derived from the petrochemical industry has attracted much interest in the implementation of sustainable processes, involving the use of biomass derived from waste to generate alternative materials (bioplastics) to these high consumption products. Although our projects involve several polymers of biotechnological interest like bacterial nanocellulose, many of our research activities focus on the production of bacterial polyesters or polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), which are considered one of the most promising bioplastics due to their biodegradable character. Our designs are based on the use of industrial and urban biowastes such as glycerol, fatty residues or synthetic gas (syngas) as sources for the bacterial fermentation. Both natural-producing bacteria, such as Pseudomonas putida and Rhodospirillum rubrum, as well as genetically optimized microorganisms, are considered in these processes. We invest our effort in studying the metabolic and regulatory networks in producing microorganisms and others sharing their natural environment such as predatory bacteria like Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus. We apply our findings in the production of new materials including the second generation functionalized PHA with new properties (e.g. anti-microbial), and susceptible to chemical modification after its biosynthesis. In addition, we are very interested in the design and development of new downstream systems to process the bacterial biomass for the separation of intracellular bioproducts. In this aspect, we use different strategies to control the release of bioproducts to the extracellular medium as controlled self-cell-disruption systems based on the production of lytic proteins in the producer microorganism. Finally, we are working on the identification and characterization of enzymes for synthesis and biodegradation of materials, as well as the production of building blocks as monomers for polymer synthesis.
Members
| María Auxiliadora Prieto Jiménez |
| Maria-Tsampika Manoli |
| Mª Virginia Rivero Buceta |
| Manuel Santiago Godoy |
| Cristina Campano Tiedra |
| Alberto Rodríguez Martín |
| Ana María Hernández Arriaga |
| Natalia Hernández Herreros |
| Francisco Blanco Parte |
| Sergio Salgado Briegas |
| Sonia Mentrida Calleja |
| Sofia de Francisco de Polando |
| Marina Rodriguez Carreiro |
| Cristina Lucia Gomez Campo |
Selected Publications
Mezzina MP, Manoli MT, Prieto MA, Nikel PI. [2020]. Engineering Native and Synthetic Pathways in Pseudomonas Putida for the Production of Tailored Polyhydroxyalkanoates. Biotechnology Journal https://doi.org/10.1002/biot.202000165
Prieto MA, Manoli MT, Tarazona N, Mato A, Maestro B, Sanz JM, Nogales J. [2020]. The Handbook of Polyhydroxyalkanoates: Molecular Basis of Medium-Chain-Length PHA Metabolism of Pseudomonas putida. CRC Press.
Rivero-Buceta V, Aguilar MR, Hernández-Arriaga AM, Blanco FG, Rojas A, Tortajada M, Ramírez-Jiménez RA, Vázquez-Lasa B, Prieto MA. [2020]. Anti-staphylococcal hydrogels based on bacterial cellulose and the antimicrobial biopolyester poly (3-hydroxy-acetylthioalkanoate-co-3-hydroxyalkanoate). International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, 162, 1869-1879.
Tarazona NA, Hernández‐Arriaga AM, Kniewel R, Prieto MA [2020]. Phasin interactome reveals the interplay of PhaF with the polyhydroxyalkanoate transcriptional regulatory protein PhaD in Pseudomonas putida. Environmental Microbiology, 22 (9), 3922-3936.
Herencias C, Salgado-Briegas S, Prieto MA [2020]. Emerging Horizons for Industrial Applications of Predatory Bacteria. The Ecology of Predation at the Microscale, pp.173-194.
Herencias C, Prieto MA, Nogales J [2020]. Providing new insights on the byphasic lifestyle of the predatory bacterium Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus through genome-scale metabolic modeling. PLoS Computational Biology, 16(9):e1007646.
Mato A, Blanco FG, Maestro B, Sanz JM, Pérez-Gil J, Prieto MA. [2020]. Dissecting the Polyhydroxyalkanoate-Binding Domain of the PhaF Phasin: Rational Design of a Minimized Affinity Tag. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 86 (12).
González E, Herencias C, Prieto MA. [2020]. A polyhydroxyalkanoate‐based encapsulating strategy for ‘bioplasticizing’ microorganisms. Microbial Biotechnology. 13 (1), 185-198.
Tarazona NA, Machatschek R, Schulz B, Prieto MA, Lendlein A [2019]. Molecular insights into the physical adsorption of amphiphilic protein PhaF onto copolyester surfaces. Biomacromolecules, 20 (9), 3242–3252.
Bustamante D, Segarra S, Tortajada M, Ramón D, del Cerro D, Prieto MA, Iglesias JR, Rojas A [2019]. In silico prospection of microorganisms to produce polyhydroxyalkanoate from whey: Caulobacter segnis DSM 29236 as a suitable industrial strain. Microbial Biotechnology, 12(3):487-501.
Hernández‐Arriaga AM, Del Cerro C, Urbina L, Eceiza A, Corcuera MA, Retegi A, Prieto MA [2019]. Genome sequence and characterization of the bcs clusters for the production of nanocellulose from the low pH resistant strain Komagataeibacter medellinensis ID 13488. Microbial Biotechnology, 12 (4), 620-632
García C & Prieto MA [2019]. Bacterial cellulose as a potential bioleather substitute for the footwear industry. Microbial Biotechnology. 12 (4), 582-585.
Drzyzga O, Prieto A [2019]. Plastic waste management, a matter for the ‘community’. Microb Biotechnol. 12(1): 66–68.
Mato A, Tarazona NA, Hidalgo A, Cruz A, Jiménez M, Perez-Gil J, Prieto MA. [2019]. Interfacial activity of phasin PhaF from Pseudomonas putida KT2440 at hydrophobic-hydrophilic biointerfaces. Langmuir 35(3):678-686. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.8b03036.
Funding
Project: MIX-UP - MIXed plastics biodegradation and UPcycling using microbial communities
Funding entity: EU H2020-NMBP-TR-IND-2018-2020
Reference: 870294
Principle investigator: Mª Auxiliadora Prieto Jiménez
Duration: 2020 - 2023
Project: NANOBIOCARGO-CM - Nanocontenedores y nanovehículos dirigidos al transporte y liberación de agentes bioactivos
Funding entity: CAM
Reference: P2018/NMT4389
Principle investigator: Mª Auxiliadora Prieto Jiménez
Duration: 2019 - 2022
Project: SinFonia - Synthetic biology-guided engineering of Pseudomonas putida for biofluorination
Funding entity: EU- H2020-NMBP-BIO-2018
Reference: 814418
Principle investigator: Mª Auxiliadora Prieto Jiménez
Duration: 2019 - 2022
Project: ENGICOIN - Engineered microbial factories for CO2 exploitation in an integrated waste treatment platform
Funding entity: EU- H2020-NMBP-BIO-2017
Reference: 760994
Principle investigator: Mª Auxiliadora Prieto Jiménez
Duration: 2018 - 2021
Project: AFTERLIFE - Advanced filtration technologies for the recovery and later conversion of relevant fractions from wastewater
Funding entity: EU- H2020-BBI-JTI-2016-R01
Reference: 745737
Principle investigator: Mª Auxiliadora Prieto Jiménez
Duration: 2017 - 2021
Project: TECMABIO. Application of cutting edge TEChnologies for the synthesis of biofunctional MAterials based on bacterial BIOpolymers.
Funding entity: MINECO
Reference: BIO2017-83448-R
Principle investigator: Mª Auxiliadora Prieto Jiménez
Duration: 2018 - 2020
Project: REFUCOAT - Full recyclable food package with enhanced gas barrier properties and new functionalities by the use of high performance coatings
Funding entity: EU- H2020-BBI-JTI-2016-R05
Reference: 745791
Principle investigator: Mª Auxiliadora Prieto Jiménez
Duration: 2017 - 2020
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Project: CELBICON - Cost-effective CO2 conversion into chemicals via combination of capture, electrochemical and biochemical conversion technologies
Funding entity: EU- H2020-ISIB-2015-2
Reference: 679050
Principle investigator: Mª Auxiliadora Prieto Jiménez
Duration: 2016 - 2019
Project “Explora Ciencia” y “Explora Tecnologia” recientemente concedido: "Antibióticos vivos frente a patógenos intracelulares”.
Reference: MINECO
Funding entity: BIO2014-61515-EXP
Principle investigator: Mª Auxiliadora Prieto Jiménez
Duration: 2015 - 2017
Project: P4SB – From plastic waste to plastic value using Pseudomonas putida Synthetic Biology
Funding entity: EU-H2020-LEIT-BIO-2014-1
Reference: 633962
Principle investigator: Mª Auxiliadora Prieto Jiménez
Duration: 2015 - 2019
Project Retos-Colaboración: "Producción de bioproductos a través de residuos alimentarios".
Funding entity: MINECO, Cofinanciado UE, FONDOS FEDER
Reference: RTC-2015-3825-5
Principle investigator: Mª Auxiliadora Prieto
Coordinator: Biopolis S.L.
Participating entities: Biopolis S.L., DACSA (Maicerías Españolas S.A.), GAIKER Centro Tecnológico, CIB-CSIC
Duration: 2014 - 2017
Acciones de dinamización "Redes de excelencia": Convocatoria 2014.
Bacfitered - Red de excelencia para la explotación de bacterias con fines terapéuticos
Funding entity: MINECO
Reference: SAF2014-56716-REDT
Investigador principal: Esteban Veiga Chacon
Project: nanoBIOSOMA - Diseño, desarrollo y producción de nanocontenedores y nanovehículos
Funding entity: CAM
Reference: P2013/MIT2807
Coordinator: José María Valpuesta
Principle investigator: Mª Auxiliadora Prieto Jiménez
Duration: 2014 - 2018
Project: Integración de agentes líticos de origen biológico en el diseño de nuevos métodos de “downstream” para la producción de bioplásticos.
Funding entity: MINECO
Reference: BIO2013-44878-R
Principle investigator: Mª Auxiliadora Prieto Jiménez
Duration: 2014 - 2017
Project: Revalgas - Revalorización del gas de síntesis (syngas) mediante fermentación bacteriana
Funding entity: Retos Colaboración
Reference: RTC-2014-1764-3
Coordinador: Abengoa Research
Principle investigator: Elena Puerta-Fernández
Duration: 2014 - 2016
Project: SYNPOL - Biopolymers from syngas fermentation
Funding entity: EU-FP7-KBBE-2012-6
Reference: 311815
Principle investigator: Mª Auxiliadora Prieto Jiménez
Duration: 2012 - 2016