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Platelet transfusion can be a life-saving procedure in different medical settings, but shelf-life of this plod product is only 5 days. The efficient ex vivobiomanufacturing of platelets would make it possible toovercome the shortages of donated platelets. The optimized protocol described by BERG researchers in a recent paper published in the journal Cythotherapy allows the efficient production of platelets and their progenitors from blood stem/progenitor cells by mimicking the bone marrow niche through a co-culture system with human mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC), in combination with different biological factors to prompt differentiation toward functional platelets. Click on title to learn more.

Photo details: SEM image from blood shwoing small disc-shaped platelets among other red and white blood cells. Bruce Wetzel, NCI, 1982, public domain. 

Moesziomyces antarcticus is an efficient producer of mannosylerythritol lipids (MEL), a biosurfactant with a wide range of potential applications. The use of lignocellulosic biomass can contribute to sustainable MEL production. While lignocellulosic sugars (e.g. D-glucose and D-xylose) can be converted to MEL, the required pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass releases by products that are potentially inhibitory for yeasts. A recent publication by Marisa Santos, Nuno Faria and Frederico Ferreira from BERG-iBB , in collaboration with César Fonseca from LNEG, describes a design of experiment (DoE) that was performed to evaluate the effect of furfural, acetate and formate on M. antarcticus and its capacity to produce MEL from lignocellulose hydrolysates. The study provides insight into the conditions required by M. antarcticus for MEL production from lignocellulosic hydrolysates and points towards further process and strain development requirements. The work was published in Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology and made it to the cover of the journal.

Image details: JCTB cover,  copyright by Marisa V. Santos, 2018. Acknowledgements: FCT grant CRUISE (PTDC/AAG‐TEC/0696/2014)

The project "Green Detergents: biosurfactants from lignocellulosic biomass" has just won the 8th edition of the Green Project Awards Portugal (2015) in the category Research and Development. The core team is composed by Nuno Faria (PhD, MIT Portugal Program graduate), Frederico Ferreira (iBB-IST) and César Fonseca (PhD, former Researcher at LNEG, Professor at Aalborg University. The prize was awarded by Quercus, the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA), and GCI, to foster sustainable development. The new technology aims at producing biodegradable and non-toxic biosurfactants (detergents) from renewable resources (agricultural and forest wastes) as alternative to oil-based products. Unlike most of current detergents, the target biosurfactants are compatible with applications in household cleaners/detergents, cosmetics, drug delivery, among others. The team intends to continue developing the technology towards commercialization. In addition to the international patent, the team has several publications on the subject in international scientific journals and contributed for the training of 2 PhD and 3 MSc students.

The project "Green Detergents: biosurfactants from lignocellulosic biomass" was submitted to the 8th edition of the Green Project Awards Portugal (2015) in the category Research and Development. The core team was composed by Nuno Faria (MIT Portugal Program graduate), Frederico Ferreira (iBB-IST) and César Fonseca (Invited Researcher at LNEG). This project generated a technology for the production of biosurfactants from lignocellulosic residues (e.g. wheat straw) via biological conversion. These biosurfactants are glycolipids, mannosylerythritol lipids (MEL), produced by yeasts (Pseudozyma spp.). Generally, the use of biosurfactants has significant advantages over synthetic surfactants, like higher biodegradability, less toxicity, milder production conditions and higher molecular complexity, which promotes unique biochemical properties. The properties of these biosurfactants (MEL) are compatible with their use in the following applications: household cleaners/detergents, cosmetics, drug delivery, among others. The technology proposed for MEL production offers advantages over the existent technology used by Asian companies, including the reduction of raw materials costs, independence of the food value-chain and straightforward product purification

Javad Hatami defends his Ph D thesis in Bioengineering at Instituto Superior Técnico, monday the 27th April 2015. During the last years, and under the supervision of Frederico Ferreira and Cláudia Lobato Silva from BERG-iBB, Javad has investigated strategies to produce platelets from stem cells.  The title of his thesis is “Engineering The Microenvironment Of Human Umbilical Cord Blood Hematopoietic Stem/Progenitor Cells Towards Efficient Megakaryocytic Lineage Differentiation And Platelet Production Ex‐vivo”.