Open Day at the Institute of Catalysis and Petrochemistry

The Applied Biocatalysis Group has participated in the Open Day of the Institute of Catalysis and Petrochemistry (11-13 November 2015) in the context of Science Week 2015. Students from different High Schools of the Madrid Region have visited our laboratory. They have carried out a laboratory practice entitled "Removing lactose from milk with enzymes".

Symposium "Biocatalysis in Industrial Biotechnology" in Mexico DF

Our research group has participated in the Symposium "Biocatalysis in Industrial Biotechnology" organized by the former BIOCATEM network. The Symposium was held in Mexico DF, and Francisco Plou pronounced a conference on "Enzymes in the preparation of functional ingredients: prebiotics and antioxidant derivatives". Several Mexican companies and researchers from different countries contributed to the meeting. Link to the videos of the conferences.

Antonio Ballesteros, appointed Academic of the RANF

Prof. Antonio Ballesteros has been appointed Academic of  the Royal Academy of Pharmacy of Spain (RANF). Congratulations!

Presence of ABG Group in LIGNOCEL Meeting

In the last meeting of the LIGNOCEL Network (Biotechnology of Lignocellulolosic Materials), which took place in Madrid (October 1-2 2015), our laboratory presented the work "Enzymatic transformation of xylan into xylooligosaccharides by the synergistic action of two endoxylanases". The meeting was very fruitful to establish new collaborations between research groups involved in the exploitation of lignocellulosic residues.

The Applied Biocatalysis Group in Pan European Networks: Science & Technology

The profile of our research group is depicted in the last issue of Pan European Networks: Science & Technology. Link to the full article

BIOTRANS 2015

Our group has participated in the 12th Biotrans Meeting held on July 26 – 30, 2015, at Vienna University of Technology, with two contributions:
"Covalent immobilization of Zymomonas mobilis levansucrase on silica activated with vinyl sulfone", presented by Paloma Santos-Moriano
"Micro-scale procedure for enzyme immobilization screening and operational stability assays”, presented by lucía Fernández-Arrojo

SECAT 2015

The work "Enzymatic transformation of birchwood xylan into high added value products" was selected for oral presentation in the Congress of the Spanish Society of Catalysis (SECAT 2015) held in Barcelona (Spain) from 13-15 July 2015.

"Best Flash Presentation" Prize to Luciana Santibañez

The Applied Biocatalysis Group has participated in the I Spanish Meeting on Biocatalysis, which was held in Madrid from 2-3 July 2015. This meeting was an initiative of the Applied Biocatalysis Section of the Spanish Society of Biotechnology. One of our abstracts, namely that entitled "Hydrolysis of residual lactose in crude galactooligosaccharides by immobilized beta-galactosidase from Kluyveromyces lactis", presented by Luciana Santibañez, was awarded with the "Best Flash Presentation" Prize.

One of our papers, cover page in Annals of RANF

"Enzymatic synthesis of fructooligosaccharides that stimulate the gut microbiota". P. Santos-Moriano, L. Fernández-Arrojo, B. Rodríguez-Colinas, A.O. Ballesteros, F.J. Plou. Anales de la Real Academia Nacional de Farmacia  81, 48-62 (2015). Download (in Spanish)

Levansucrase activity

We have published an article on the effect of sucrose concentration and temperature on the levansucrase from Zymomonas mobilis. The three activities displayed by this enzyme were studied: formation of levan (polymerization), production of short-chain fructooligosaccharides (FOS), and sucrose hydrolysis.
Reference: “Levan versus fructooligosaccharide synthesis using the levansucrase from Zymomonas mobilis: effect of reaction conditions”. P. Santos-Moriano, L. Fernandez-Arrojo, A. Poveda, J. Jimenez-Barbero, A.O. Ballesteros and F.J. Plou. Journal of Molecular Catalysis B: Enzymatic, DOI: 10.1016/j.molcatb.2015.05.011 (2015)

Our group has participated in the course "Novel tendencies and challenges for the chemical processes in the 21th century", organized by the the National Distance Education University (UNED), which was held from 22 to 24 April 2015. Francisco Plou pronounced a conference on "Biocatalysis". Nearly sixty students (undergraduate and master) attended the Symposium. The programme of the course can be downloaded here.

Introduction Course to HPLC

Our group has coordinated an introduction course to analytical and semipreparative high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), under the auspices of the Madrid's Chemists Association. It took place on May 11-14 2015. More information

Microscale procedure for enzyme immobilization assays

We have published a simple and inexpensive method, based on the use of micro-centrifuge filter tubes, for establishing the best enzyme immobilization conditions. The methodology is also useful to assess the operational stability of biocatalysts.
Reference: Micro-scale procedure for enzyme immobilization screening and operational stability assays. L. Fernandez-Arrojo, P. Santos-Moriano, B. Rodriguez-Colinas, A.O. Ballesteros, F.J. Plou. Biotechnology Letters (2015), DOI 10.1007/s10529-015-1835-z

Seminar by Luciana Santibáñez

Luciana Santibáñez, PhD student from the Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso (Chile) who is performing a stay in our group, gave a seminar on "Synthesis and sequential purification of galactooligosaccharides". The conference was accompanied by an excellent kuchen of grapes.

Biocatalysis day for two High Schools

A group of students from the High School IES Aljandic (Posadas, Cordoba) and IES Colonial (Fuente Palmera, Cordoba) visited the Aplied Biocatalysis Group a CSIC. The students performed a series of experiments in the field of biocatalysis (lactose hydrolysis, encapsulation, etc.) and visited other dependencies at our Institute (ICP-CSIC).

Review on Prebiotics

Our group has participated in a review article (in Spanish) on Prebiotics that has just been published in the journal "Nutricion Hospitalaria". This paper was presented during the VI Workshop on Probiotics, Prebiotics and Health that was held in Oviedo during 5-6 February 2015, auspiced by the Spanish Society of Probiotics and Prebiotics (SEPyP)

CINFA Prize 2014 sponsorized by the Spanish Royal Academy of Pharmacy

The work "Enzymatic synthesis of fructooligosaccharides for the modulation of colonic microbiota" presented by Paloma Santos-Moriano to the Scientific Contest 2014 sponsorized by the Spanish Royal Academy of Pharmacy obtained the CINFA Prize. The coauthors of this work were Lucía Fernández-Arrojo, Bárbara Rodríguez-Colinas,  Antonio Ballesteros and Francisco J. Plou. The awards ceremony took place on January 22nd 2015 at 19:00 h at the venue of the Spanish Royal Academy of Pharmacy (Madrid)

Testimony on Digital CSIC

Francisco Plou offers a testimony of his experience publishing in the institutional repository Digital CSIC. He explains the main benefits of this type of open access repositories. It is worth mentioning the possibility that the scientific information is available to several sectors (companies, teachers, science disseminators, etc.) that do not have access to the main publishers.

 

Merry Christmas and Happy 2015

The Applied Biocatalysis Group wish you a Merry Christmas. Our best wishes for the upcoming year!

Participation in the Spanish Week of Biotechnology

Our group has participated in the IV Spanish Week of Biotechnology, auspiced by the Spanish Society of Biotechnology (SEBIOT). A series of experiments were presented to high school students. The topic of the session was "Biotechnology: functional foods for our digestive system". A selection of pictures of the different activities that took place can be seen here.