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 |
| Ryan Kniewel |
| Alberto Rodríguez Martín |
| Silvia Alfonso Loeches |
| Mª Virginia Rivero Buceta |
| Ana María Hernández Arriaga |
| Ernesto Alejandro Gonzalez Romo |
| Rosa Ana Ramírez Jímenez |
| Carla Veronica Fuentes Lopez |
| Silvia Martin Muñoz |
Selected Publications
Tarazona NA, Maestro B, Revelles O, Sanz JM, Prieto AM [2019]. Role of leucine zipper-like motifs in the oligomerization of Pseudomonas putida phasins. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, 1863 (2):362-370.
García C & Prieto MA [2018]. Bacterial cellulose as a potential bioleather substitute for the footwear industry. Microbial Biotechnology; https://doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.13306
Bello-Gil D, Maestro B, Fonseca J, Dinjaski N, Prieto MA, Sanz JM [2018]. Poly-3-hydroxybutyrate Functionalization with BioF-Tagged Recombinant Proteins. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 84 (4), e02595-17
Castro-Mayorga JL, Freitas F, Reis M, Prieto MA, Lagaron JM [2018]. Biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles and polyhydroxybutyrate nanocomposites of interest in antimicrobial applications. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, 108:426-435.
Revelles O, Beneroso D, Menéndez JA, Arenillas A, García JL, Prieto MA [2017]. Syngas obtained by microwave pyrolysis of household wastes as feedstock for polyhydroxyalkanoate production in Rhodospirillum rubrum. Microb Biotechnol. 10(6):1412-1417.
Kniewel R, Revelles O, Prieto MA [2017]. Biogenesis of Medium-Chain-Length Polyhydroxyalkanoates. Biogenesis of Fatty Acids, Lipids and Membranes; Part of the series Handbook of Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology, pp 1-25.
Prieto MA, Fernandez I, Martínez V, Dinjaski N, Herencias C, Peña F, Tarazona NA, Revelles O [2016]. A holistic view of polyhydroxyalkanoate metabolism in Pseudomonas putida. Environmental Microbiology, 18:341-357.
Drzyzga O, Revelles O, Durante-Rodríguez G, Díaz E, García JL, Prieto A. [2015]. New challenges for syngas fermentation: towards production of biopolymers. J. Chem. Technol. Biotechnol. 90:1735-1751
Dinjaski N, Prieto MA [2015]. Smart polyhydroxyalkanoate nanobeads by protein based functionalization. Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine, 11:885-889.
Mezzina MP, Wetzler DE, Almeida A, Dinjaski N, Prieto MA, Pettinari MJ [2015]. A phasin with extra talents: a polyhydroxyalkanoate granule‐associated protein has chaperone activity. Environmental Microbiology, 17:1765-1776.
Dinjaski N, Fernández-Gutiérrez M, Selvam S, Parra-Ruiz FJ, Lehman SM, San Román J, García E, García JL, García AJ, Prieto MA [2014]. PHACOS, a functionalized bacterial polyester with bactericidal activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Biomaterials 35:14-24.
Funding
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: 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
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: BIO2014-61515-EXP
Funding entity: MINECO
Principle investigator: Mª Auxiliadora Prieto Jiménez
Duration: 2015 - 2017
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: 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: 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