Opus 19 and 4.5 million PLN for research.

Tomasz Janek PhD, Prof. Zbigniew Lazar and Prof. Witold Rohm are three scientists from the University of Environmental and Life Sciences who in the latest edition of the Opus 19 National Science Centre program have obtained a total of nearly 4.5 million PLN for research. Janek will get 1,052,880 PLN, Prof. Lazar - 1,944,768 PLN, and Prof. Rohm 1,401,600 PLN. The project implemented by Rohm will be carried out by a consortium in which UPWr is the leader and the University of Wrocław – a partner.

"Biotechnological potential and antimicrobial activity of new biosurfactant-lipase conjugates immobilized on the surface of biopolymers" – is a research project carried out by Tomasz Janek PhD from the Department of Biotechnology and Food Microbiology, which concerns a search for new antimicrobial compounds in connection with increasing resistance of pathogenic microbes to antibiotics. Another aim of the project is to come up with synthetic fungicides.

Invasive bacterial infections have posed a significant therapeutic problem in recent years. Increasing antibiotic resistance is associated with increased morbidity, mortality and rising health-care costs. This prompts us to constantly search for new substances that fight pathogenic bacteria. Biosurfactants are a group of amphiphilic compounds obtained in the processes of microbiological biosynthesis mainly by bacteria and yeasts, which may obtain carbon and energy from waste materials of the agri-food industry. Some of them are alternatives to synthetic antimicrobial substances and can be used as safe and effective antibiotics. – It turns out, however, that although they have therapeutic potential and are natural, i.e. have biological origin, so far only a few studies have been conducted on their use in biomedicine. It has long been known that most infections are caused not by individual microbial cells, but by entire communities called biofilms – explains Tomasz Janek.

According to the scientist from the Department of Biotechnology and Food Microbiology, one of the main limitations in combating biofilm is the presence of the extracellular matrix, which makes it difficult for antibiotics and antiseptics (including biosurfactants) to reach the bacteria cells hidden in it. It turns out, however, that this matrix can be broken down by lipases, and thus the cells become accessible to therapeutic substances. Therefore, the main goal of this project is to explain the mechanisms of increased biosurfactant activity in the presence of lipases – in relation to bacterial biofilms.

- The project for which I received funding focuses also on the immobilization of biosurfactants in hydrogels which can adhere to their surface for a long time, allowing for the sustained release of active substances in the place of application. This property makes them particularly interesting in the treatment of local wounds due to their low intrinsic toxicity and the possibility of sustained drug release. You can also "supply" them with bactericidal properties by enriching them with biologically active substances. Hydrogels containing antibacterial substances can also be used as promising biomaterials in the food industry – says Tomasz Janek, who will evaluate in his research the effects of synergistic biosurfactant-lipase systems against pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus hirae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Campylobacter spp. and Salmonella spp., as well as fungi producing mycotoxins contaminating food. It turns out that biosurfactants are currently considered as promising biocontrol agents against toxigenic fungi from the Penicillium, Aspergillus and Fusarium genera. This part of the research will be carried out in collaboration with scientists from the University of Minho in Portugal.

- The results obtained in this project will be important not only for the scientific community, but also for the whole of humanity – says Tomasz Janek.

Also associated with the Department of Biotechnology and Food Microbiology of the UPWr is prof. Zbigniew Lazar, who has been awarded almost 2 million PLN by the National Science Centre for research on the use of volatile fatty acids for the biosynthesis of waxes by Yarrowia lipolytica yeast.

- Modern biotechnological processes require innovative solutions. The economic and environmental aspects of these processes play an increasingly important role. The social aspect also cannot be neglected. Everyone expects that modern science will solve the problems related to environmental pollution that we ourselves have caused – says Prof. Lazar. A key role in the research – carried out by a well-working team of science enthusiasts – will be played by microorganisms used to produce valuable metabolites. With the growing public awareness of environmental degradation, emphasis is placed on the use of industrial waste for the cultivation of microbes, which allows us to eliminate the competition for raw materials between biotechnological industry and food production. Therefore, we are looking for new carbon sources for biotechnological processes. One of such substrates may be volatile fatty acids (VFA) – acetic, propionic and butyric, formed e.g. as a result of the fermentation of waste from the wood industry, sewage treatment plants and various biodegradable organic waste, but also during the fermentation of municipal waste.

- At the beginning of the 21^st century, over 95% of the generated solid waste was still disposed of in landfills and was not subject to segregation and reuse. In our research, we want to extract what is valuable from them, i.e. volatile fatty acids, which will be used as a substrate for lipid biosynthesis by Yarrowia lipolytica yeast – explains Prof. Lazar, who, in the research project funded by the National Science Centre, will characterize the metabolism of acetate, propionate and butyrate in Y. lipolytica yeast and develop a method for their effective use in the production of metabolites of high added value.

- The production of valuable cellular metabolites is related to the second main goal of the project –  production of waxes. Their natural sources are mineral oils, microorganisms, plants and animals. The vast majority of waxes are obtained from mineral oils. However, new sources are being sought that are both renewable and environmentally friendly. For a long time, the most widely available natural source of waxes was the oil obtained from the sperm whale. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, sperm whale oil was used as an excellent lubricant due to its low viscosity and its stability -  it did not freeze in temperatures down to -30° C. Inevitably, this led to such overfishing, that sperm whales were placed under strict protection as an endangered species – says Prof. Zbigniew Lazar.

Waxes are used in many personal care products, but also in lubricants or protective coatings. In the automotive industry, the global car wax market is estimated to be valued at $ 1,126.4 million by the end of 2028. A substitute for sperm whale oil is now Californian Simmondsia chinensis seed oil, commonly known as jojoba oil. More than half of this oil is in the form of waxes, whose composition resembles that of the sperm whale, as well as the waxes found in human skin. Its use, however, is limited by small supply, and thus high prices. Prof. Lazar’s project is intended to develop wax biosynthesis through the oil-producing Y. lipolytica yeast. Preliminary studies indicate high potential of these microorganisms for the biosynthesis of waxes, but at the same time these compounds are known to have a toxic effect on cells. Therefore, it will be important to develop a method that allows for effective wax biosynthesis without harming yeast cells.

The third beneficiary of the Opus 19 program is the consortium of the University of Environmental and Life Sciences (project leader) and the University of Wrocław (partner) – a research group led by Professor Witold Rohm from the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformatics will deal with the integration of tropospheric observations using ground and satellite GNSS observations.

As Prof. Rohm points out, regardless of our lifestyle, we use location data every day. Navigation in a smartphone or a car uses data sent by global satellite navigation systems, GNSS for short. The space race, started by the United States and the USSR in the 1960s, is still not over. The American GPS navigation system and the Russian GLONASS, has been joined in the last decade by the European Galileo system, the Chinese Beidou and the Japanese QZSS. In the lowest layer of the atmosphere – the troposphere, where the highest amount of water vapor is present, the GNSS signal is subject to the largest amount of bending and delay. The effect of signal bending is recorded on low-orbit satellites equipped with GNSS receivers, while delays – at ground stations.

- The amount of tropospheric delay and bending is a valuable and relatively cheap source of information about the current state of the atmosphere for weather services – says Prof. Witold Rohm and adds that the limitations in the use of GNSS information in meteorology can be partly overcome by using the GNSS tomography technique. It turns out that, as in the case of computed tomography, used to diagnose pathogenic changes, GNSS tomography provides a three-dimensional image of the water vapor content in the atmosphere.

How? The part of the troposphere above the dense network of GNSS receivers is divided into small boxes, voxels, in which, with the use ray tracing algorithms, the length of the GNSS signal crossing a given voxel is determined. On this basis, an integrated delay value is decomposed into model voxels. Despite the dense network of earth stations and the large number of satellites transmitting the GNSS signal, some voxels remain empty, that is, they do not pass the GNSS signal. This effect can be mitigated by integrating information from receivers located on low-orbit satellites.

- The need to expand the functionality of the tomographic model and the development of satellite signal tracking algorithms is a practical dimension of the idea of ​​integrating space and ground observations. Due to the constant development of earth stations and satellite constellations, it is necessary to perform a simulation of the model’s operation for the future infrastructure – says Prof. Witold Rohm.

According to the scientist from the University of Environmental and Life Sciences, the integrated tomographic model can also be used to monitor and determine the altitude of the planetary and urban boundary layers, important for monitoring air quality. The height of the planetary boundary layer influences, among other things, the night-time temperature inversion and, consequently, the pollution of the layers of air masses near the ground. However, within the urban boundary layer, the diversity of meteorological parameters is related to the microclimatic properties of the observation site.

- Recent studies show also a positive impact of observations from the tomographic model on short-term weather forecasts. As assumed, it will be able to provide highly accurate water vapor data for local, regional and global weather services. This, in turn, allows us to improve the possibility of forecasting dangerous weather phenomena, such as the development of storm cells or intense rainfall – adds Prof. Rohm. An important aspect of the project is cooperation with scientists from ETH Zurich in the field of tomography and with Spire Global, the owner and operator of the Lemur satellite constellation receiving the GNSS signal bent in the troposphere.

The competition for funding from the NCN Opus 19 program was announced in September 2020. The pool of money to be distributed was 450 million PLN.

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