The Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology (IATA), part of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), is organizing a workshop on Tuesday, November 26, featuring internationally renowned speakers and focused on research in Cellular Factories. The event will be held from 09:00 to 18:00 in the Salón de Actos Primo Yúfera (IATA).
This event is part of the Severo Ochoa Excellence strategic plan, which emphasizes research on sustainable bioactive compound production and the development of microorganisms as future cell factories.
The workshop will feature eight distinguished speakers from national and international institutions, each offering unique insights into microorganism production through cell factories. Topics will range from fungal and yeast-based systems to bacterial communities, providing a comprehensive view of this innovative field.
Amparo López, Amparo Querol, José F. Marcos, and José Manuel Guillamón—director of the Institute, director of the Severo Ochoa program, and IATA researchers, respectively—will present the main goals of this event.
Jack Pronk, from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), will open the workshop with an overview of cell factories in yeast in a talk entitled "Yeast Cell Factories: From Academic Concept to Industrial Application." Next, Ronald de Vries from the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute will discuss the potential of cell factories in fungal research in his talk, “Improved Fungal Cell Factories Through a Better Understanding of Fungal Metabolism.”
After the coffe break, Verena Siewers, from Chalmers University of Technology will explore the use of synthetic and systems biology to engineer yeast cells for diverse applications in her presentation: “Synthetic biology tools for yeast cell factories”. After this talk, Cinzia Klemm, from Imperial College London, will follow, discussing the use of engineered synthetic microbial communities to enable sustainable bioproduction of high-value products, in her talk entitled “Designing Synthetic Microbial Communities for a Greener Future: Sustainable Bioproduction of High-Value Products”.
Mª Auxiliadora Prieto, a CSIC researcher at the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas Margarita Salas (CIB-CSIC), will present “Advanced Materials Production by Bacterial Cell Catalysts” before the lunch break.
Pau Ferrer, from Univeristat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) will discuss how bioprocess development can be integrated into the iterative design-build-test-learn cycle to optimize microorganisms as cell factories. He will study the potential of Pichia pastoris in his seminar: “Integrating bioprocess development into the design-build-test-learn cycle of the Pichia pastoris (Komagataella phaffii) cell factory”. Erzsébet Fekete, a researcher from the University of Debrecen will address the importance of precise culture conditions for studying fungal secondary metabolism in a seminar entitled: “Relevance of tightly controlled culture conditions in exploring fungal secondary metabolism”. Daniel Ramón, from ADM Biopolis will give the last seminar of the event, focused on “Precision fermentation and the future of the agri-food sector”.
The workshop will conclude with a round table discussion featuring all speakers.
To attend the event, you must register at the link below.