Past February 17, the results of the European project MySterI (Mycobacterial Steroids for Industry) were presented for the final-term defence by its project coordinator, the researcher from the INBIOTEC team, Dr. Carlos Barreiro. It was the project’s final meeting with the ERA-IB secretariat and more than 70 scientists, with the aim to justify a successfully developed project encompassing partners from Russia, Norway, Germany, UK and Spain. MySterI has been aimed at producing high value steroid precursors using a novel bioconversion strategy resulting in lower production and environmental costs.

Last September 22, the follow-up meeting of the European project SCILS (http://www.era-ib.net/scils), held in León, brought together European scientists from Germany, UK, Denmark or Norway involved in the research on amino acid production by Corynebacterium glutamicum. The project aims to elucidate the influence of increasing bioreactor inhomogeneities which happen in industrial-scale bioreactors, using this bacterium as workhorse.

Inbiotec will attend the 6th Congress of European Microbiologists (FEMS 2015), one of the leading meetings of its kind, bringing together microbiologists from all over the world. In this event, Inbiotec will be present showing some of the latest results from its R&D activities, putting forward a set of posters encompassing four biotechnological applications: Feruloyl-esterases in white biotechnology, biocoatings against microbial induced corrosion, microbial production of steroid-precursors, and improvement of industrial bioprocesses for amino acids production:

• Penicillium chrysogenum b13, a feruloyl esterase factory.
• Proteomic analysis of the Penicillium chrysogenum b13 enzymatic cocktail for lignocellulosic biomass saccharification.
• Development of green alternative coatings to protect the metallic structures against the microbial induced corrosion process.
• Metabolome analysis of the antimicrobial compounds secreted by environmentally isolated anti-mic microorganisms.
• MySterI: a one‐step steroid precursors production project from Mycobacterium to industry.
• Genome sequencing and ‘omics development for the steroid precursors producer Mycobacterium sp. NRRL B-3805.
• L‐aspartic acid consumption as a base for amino acids and their derivatives production by Corynebacterium glutamicum.
• Screening and validation of suitable gene integration locations along the genome of Corynebacterium glutamicum.