Harnessing Extreme Microorganisms for Sustainable Industrial Solutions.
The need for more ecological and efficient alternatives in industrial processes has raised interest for the use of microorganisms and enzymes as biocatalysts. The discovery of extremophilic microorganisms and their novel enzymes has opened a new avenue for the finding of novel enzymes.
Currently, the repertoire of enzymes which are used in industrial processes is limited by properties such as substrate concentration, sheering forces, temperature, pH and organic solvents, all common features in industrial settings. In general, extremozymes have an overall inherent stability and they are able to overcome most of these conditions.
The unique features of each group of extremophiles can be exploited to provide enzymes with specific applications.
Her laboratory, Fundacion Biociencia has focused in the discovery and development of enzymes exclusively derived from extremophilic microorganisms. Some of these enzymes from thermophilic and psychrophilic microorganisms have been cloned and expressed as recombinant enzymes and are already present in the market.Â
Biociencia has built one of the largest and more diverse collections of novel and unique microorganisms from different extreme environments. This extreme bio-bank is permanently growing in order to provide the industry with the most complete source of extremozymes as novel biocatalytic solutions for non-standard technological challenges.
Here she will present some of the enzymes we have been discovered and developed as biocatalysts from extremophiles.
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Scientific Director of the Fundación Biociencia & Associate Professor at the Universidad de Santiago de Chile
Dr. Jenny Blamey is the Scientific Director of the Fundación Biociencia and an Associate Professor at the Universidad de Santiago de Chile. Her main focus of research is in Extremophiles. This includes sampling from natural extreme environments including Antarctica and other extreme environments in Chile. Her laboratory, Fundacion Biociencia, focuses on the growth and isolation of extremophilic microorganisms, detection, purification and characterization of their enzymes and bioactive compounds. Natural and novel extremophilic microorganisms, along with their proteins and specific DNA, are often of decisive importance for biological sciences. During the last years her laboratory has built up very skilled competences, concentrating on extremophiles with uncommon growth conditions. These microorganisms may even escape detection, when screening techniques are applied to the environmental samples. Therefore, DNA extraction and protein purification also require methods that are non-trivial to develop. Her laboratory contributes with all the specific knowledge already mentioned and benefit tremendously from the interaction and collaborative scientific work developed in conjunction with institutions as the Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Universidad de Chile, APA from Chilean Air Force and The University of Georgia USA through their doctoral and master programs in: Biotechnology, Microbiology and Biochemistry. Dr. Blamey has more than 70 publications in extremophiles research including several chapter books.
