Group Leader/s

 

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.

 

Hendrik Ballerstedt, Till Tiso, Nick Wierckx, Ren Wei, Luc Avérous, Uwe Bornscheuer, Kevin O’Connor, Tilman Floehr, Andreas Jupke, Jürgen Klankermayer, Luo Liu, Victor de Lorenzo, Tanja Narancic, Juan Nogales, Remi Perrin, Eric Pollet, Auxiliadora Prieto, William Casey, Thomas Haarmann, Alexandru Sarbu, Ulrich Schwaneberg, Fengxue Xin, Weiliang Dong, Jianmin Xing, Guo-Qiang Chen, Tianwei Tan, Min Jiang, Lars M Blank  [2021]. MIXed Plastics Biodegradation and UPcycling Using Microbial Communities: The EU Horizon 2020 Project MIX-UP

 

Funding

Project: ReBioCycle - A new European blueprint for circular bioplastics upcycling solutions

Funding entity: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-IA-04

Reference: 101156032

Principle investigator: Mª Auxiliadora Prieto Jiménez

Duration: 2024 - 2028

 

Project: deCYPher - Decipher cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYPs) by digital tools to produce
flavonoids and terpenoids

Funding entity: HORIZON-CL6-2022-CIRCBIO-02-two-stage

Reference: 101081782

Principle investigator: Juan Nogales (CNB-CSIC) with Mª Auxiliadora Prieto Jiménez (CIB-CSIC)

Duration: 2023 - 2027

 

Project: AgriLoop - Pushing the frontier of circular agriculture by converting residues into novel economic, social and environmental opportunities

Funding entity: EU HORIZON-CL6-2022-CIRCBIO-01-05

Reference: 101081776

Principle investigator: Mª Auxiliadora Prieto Jiménez

Duration: 2022 - 2026

 

Project: BIOPHUN - Biological phthalate funneling for the valorization of plastic wastes

Funding entity: MICIN-AEI, NextGenerationEU/PRTR, Proyectos Estratégicos Orientados Transición Ecológica y Transición Digital

Reference: TED2021-130850A-I00

Principle investigator: Isabel Pardo Mendoza

Duration: 2022 - 2024

 

Project: BIOCIR - Revaluation of waste directed towards the circularity of bioplastics: synthesis, degradation, recycling and diversification of bacterial polyesters

Funding entity: MICINN

Reference: PID2020-112766RB-C21 financed by MCIN / AEI /10.13039/501100011033

Principle investigator: Mª Auxiliadora Prieto Jiménez

Duration: 2021 - 2024

 

Project: FERMENTA - Bioprocess pilot plant for a circular economy

Funding entity: AEI (Adquisición de Equipamiento Científico-Técnico)

Reference: EQC2021-006941-P financed by MCIN / AEI / 10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union´s NextGenerationEU / PRTR

Principle investigator: Mª Auxiliadora Prieto Jiménez

Duration: 2021 - 2024

 

Project: REVOLUZION - Solving plastics sustainability through functional multi-purpose enzymes

Funding entity: AEI (I+D+i en líneas estratégicas)

Reference: PLEC2021-008188 financed by MCIN/AEI /10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union´s NextGenerationEU/ PRTR

Principle investigator: Mª Auxiliadora Prieto Jiménez

Duration: 2021 - 2024

 

Project: Applications of biomaterials based on biopolymers: Creation of a spin-off  (BioDriven Technologies)

Funding entity: AEI (Proyectos Prueba de Concepto)

Reference: PDC2021-121381-100 financed by MCIN / AEI / 10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union´s NextGenerationEU / PRTR

Principle investigator: Mª Auxiliadora Prieto Jiménez

Duration: 2021 - 2024

 

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 - 2024

 

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 - 2023

 

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 - 2022

 

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 - 2022

 

Project: TECMABIO. Application of cutting edge TEChnologies for the synthesis of biofunctional MAterials based on bacterial BIOpolymers.

Funding entity: MINECO

Reference: BIO2017-83448-R financed by MCIN / AEI / 10.13039/501100011033 / and by FEDER (Una manera de hacer Europa)

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

 

 

More info

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