The main subjects of research are the genetic engineering and fermentation of microorganisms with the purpose of efficiently producing high value metabolites, such as antibiotics, and recombinant proteins/enzymes of biotechnological relevance. Within this context, two main streams of research activites are ongoing:

  • Biotechnological exploitation of uncommon and industrially relevant microorganisms, with a particular focus on actinomycetes and fungi producing metabolites. Currently mechanisms of resistance and production are being investigated in actinomycetes producing glycopeptide antibiotics. Actinomycetes are also studied as a source of novel enzymes for the selective modification of complex molecules such as antibiotics.

  • Improvement of peptide and protein production in native and heterologous hosts by strain manipulation and optimization of fermentation conditions. Rational genetic engineering tools are being developed to manipulate classically recalcitrant industrially valuable actinomycetes and fungi.

Antibiotic and other natural products: discovery, production and characterization

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  • rational and genetic strain improvement of producing actinomycetes
  • identification of resistance determinants in  producing actinomycetes
  • investigation of biosynthetic regulatory pathways
  • heterologous expression of biosynthetic clusters
  • study of antibiotic resistance in producer strains
  • discovery and characterization of other natural products

Enzymes for novel green application

intro-environmental-metagenomics
  • production in different heterologous hosts (Escherichia coli and Streptomyces spp.) of  enzymnes identified by functional and/or genetic screening of different enviromental samples
  • biological and biochemical characterization of the purified enzymes

Microbial colonization of benthic Artic and Antarctic environments

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  • isolation of actinomycetes from Artic and Antarctic microbial communities
  • screening of the isolates for the production of secondary metabolites and hydrolytic enzymes
  • study of antibiotic ressitance in extreme enviroments

Polyphasic taxonomy and actinobacteria classification 

Spores of Nonomuraea gerenzanensis
  • taxonomy classification of industrial valuble actinobacteria
  • morphological and genomic description of undefined strains