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The Strategy of Intelligent Specialization aka RIS3 for Galicia is prioritizing the modernization of aquaculture to target new products and services via new innovative biotech applications. Needless to say, that Galicia is the leading aquaculture producer in Spain with nearly  90% of the country’s production.

Expertise and innovation are key to the progress in this type of new upcoming industry. These two features are encapsulated by the aquaculture and biotech group of USC, Compostela, Spain bringing 4 decades of experience to the table and the company QualDIMUS of UVigo, the latter one, a newcomer, deeply rooted into the Faculty of Animal Ecology and Biology of the University at Vigo, Spain.

Four decades of experience at USC

It was 4 decades ago that the Aquaculture and Biotech research team was born at the Department of Microbiology and Parasitology of USC. At this very right moment, biotech and micro-algae research kickstarted in Spain, becoming of the most remarkable research teams worldwide, focused on research about application of micro-algae, in rivers and oceans. This team has been working non-stop ever since, so as to improve micro-algae farming, which are the foundation of the development of the Atlantic oysters, mussels, turbot-halibutfarming.

For nearly a decade, These micro-algae have increased their market value due to interest in biodiesel. “Engineers have assured us that micro-algae are a way better source of biodiesel than vegetable oils”, says researcher Ana María Otero.

The researchers’ expertise, at USC, has also been considered by the Byefouling European Project. This project seeks solutions like these and environmentally friendly, to bio-incrustation, which is likewise generating waste worth millions in cleaning and removal.

The team has been involved throughly in integrated multitrophic aquaculture and reducing significantly environmental impact at aqua-cultural facilities. There are few Spanish and International companies, which offer consulting services for farming, species selection, etc.

QualDIMUS

The new kid on the block regarding applied biotech and aquaculture in Galicia turns out to be QualDIMUS, the winning project at Concurso de Preincubadoras Campus do Mar (Sea Pre-Incubators Contest) and first award at the Concurso de Ideas Empresariales Innovadoras de la Real Academia Gallega de Ciencias (Innovative Entrepreneurship Ideas Contest at The Royal Academy of Sciences in Galicia)

QualDIMUS’s research field is sustainable fish and seafood farming and aiming at “disease prevention, control and consulting for the development of functional fish farming feed”, explains one of the developers.

QualDIMUS, originally, an IT and Technology based-company, has been offering a consulting and diagnostics service to fish farms to prevent new disease outbreaks, which have decimated populations of farmed fish and have a microbiological cause.

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The power of the Galician mother nature has to reach the beauty saloons. That is the motto of CosmetInnova, a partnership of five small Galician companies with the sole aim of bettering the properties of the organic cosmetics, it is this type of sector that is rising at a speedy pace and with an added value. This partnership began trading in October 2013 and have been steadily approaching the end phase of their final project with spectacular results. Together with the aid of the Universities of Vigo and A Coruña, the ongoing Project is aimed at the application of mushrooms, plants, olive oil and wine chaff to the cosmetics world.

Their reseach has been all about the purification and extraction of active components present in nature to offer new ingredients to the organic world of cosmetics. It is a startling advancenment in the dealing of materials, which can funnel and filter the essences to extract , enrich and purify certain molecules. “We do this in order to promote the organic and healthy properties of cosmetics without the use of artificial additives or preservatives but only organic ones; mainly those from Galicia”, says José Manuel Vilariño, Technical coordinator of this breakthrough project.

Galician produce are the base of their research. The organic raw materials from Galicia , which CosmetInnova employs in this process are albariño wine chaff, mushrooms, and olive oil, and likewise plants which are associated to traditional medicine from Senegal and South Africa.

The partnership will develop products like lipsticks, facial creams and eye mascara

CosmetInnova kicked started this project under the shelter of the Conecta Peme grant, by the Consellería de Economía e Industria (Galician Economy and Industry Regional Departments). With an initial investment of 700.000 euros, which 60% of it is funded by Axencia Galega de Innovación (Innovation Department of Galicia), needless to say that this amazing ongoing project is a collaboration of five companies: Iuvenor Lab, CarOi’Line Cosmética, Hifas da Terra, Organistry and Glecex. The University at Vigo helps with loaning their chemical engineering research center facilities EQ2 and the other one at A Coruña campus, coined Grupo de Polímeros.

To give it a bit of added value, their current goals are not only the body milk or shampoo products, which are sold in stores in big bottles but also concentrate cosmetics. So, the main 4 lines of work here are facial creams, lipsticks, eye mascara, and hydrating serums.

Their partners are going into a very saturated and coorporation biased transnational market  and face competition from others I+D projects. “The only thing left for us is to research and innovate once and again”, says Ana Vázquez, CosmetInnova director. “For the medium-sized-companies like ours, we must innovate and come up with new, different and more organic produce to compete with the giant coorporations. And our I+D is our only way out”. The choice of innovating in the right direction is what may turn into beauty the raw materials from nature.

One consortium, five companies

The CosmetInnova consortium is composed of the following companies:

• Iuvenor Lab.
• CarOi´Line Cosmética.
• Hifas da Terra.
• Glecex.
• Organistry.

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The climate change has reached catastrophic proportions not only because of the sea level rise, or the melting of the ice caps or  even the rising temperatures but also CO2 emissions and global warming are now affecting the earth flora and fauna. For example, the wáter of the oceans is turning acidic, and shellfish is unable to produce enough calcium carbonate to form their shell. High mortality rate in oysters has been remarkable and noticeable lately. And now, the population of mussels are suffering too. Overall, the Galician bivalve which is startegically paramount to people’s livelihood in the Northwest of Spain.

A Galician native, Iria Giménez, from Sada, is part of the research team at the University of Oregon (USA) and has just published in the prestigious magazine Nature Climate Change. Run by the marine biologist George Waldbusser, their research shows how  low levels of calcium carbonate have given pace to mussels without a first shell. And their mortality rate in the Pacific ocean has increased dramatically.

“Bivalve larva rely on how fast mussels have to produce their first shell, a process that takes place within their first 24 hours and is critical to assure their feeding’ says Iria Giménez.

The reserach poitns out that it is not enough to measure the CO2 and PH, but also to measure the saturation levels of calcium carbonate in the water, which affect directly this larvae. All of this is, therefore, related to the climate change.

“This acidification rise is going on globally and speedly”, says Waldbusser

“The dangerous low levels of saturation will reach soon critical levels way before it was predicted perhaps in decades or centuries ahead of what was supposed to be. And way before the PH and CO2 levels even reach nepharious levels and affect other organisms too “, says Iria Giménez.

Waldbusser shared with us worrying data: “This acidification rise is going on globally and speedly, and it is the fastest for the past 50 million years. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution about 1800, we have contributed to the rising of the oceans acidity  at an alarming rate of 30% “. We must cut down the CO2 and fuel emissions dramatically worldwide. This is the only solution at hand. Changing the energy paradigm is imperative whatever it takes.

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Stopping the onset of infection in organisms and avoiding its rapid spread has been accomplished by blocking communication among pathogens. This has been Quorum Sensing and Quorum Quenching’s main goal in an 8-year-long painstakingly but productive line of research together with the Aquaculture and Biotechnology  teams of USC in Compostela, Galicia. It is indeed a great success. This startling finding has been immediately protected by filing a European, American and Chinese patent.  The outcoming product will be trading soon thanks to the interest shown by several international coorporations, which have already begun to discuss terms of licensing with the Fundación Barrié, main venture capitalist investor involved with this scientific breakthrough research. This is also part of their Fondo de Ciencia (Scientific Fund) and needless to say, Fundacion Barrié has also been working closely with Isis Innovation, a sister company, bred at Oxford University to attract more potential clients.

Quorum sensing is the term coined to describe communication among bacteria and gene expression coordination. It is a system of stimulus and response correlated to population density, and the signals molecules transmit within certain bacteria depends on their density-number, so as to carry out an efficient attack. Conversely, the biotech strategy to block these signals or communication among bacteria is termed as quorum quenching. These signals, thus, can be interrupted or blocked more efficiently by marine bacteria with this type of activity, namely, quorum quenching.

“We found out that if we went to the sea and get bacteria, which were able to cut off this type of communication among pathogenic bacteria, we ought to be surely onto something serious… In fact, we hit jackpot once we found a bunch of them with the very same type of activity we’d been looking for. Needless to say, that sea bacteria are much more active than land batería… “, says Otero.

The strategy of quorum quenching has been applied to the EU project ByeFouling, in which the Galician team has been an active participant

The point here on was to stop the onset of infection but with a total different approach than that produced by the regular intake of antibiotics. The goal was the blockade of the coordination and association with one another bacteria and promote the development of new enzymes to cut off their communication and signals, thus, frustrating their attacks.

Likewise, the strategy of quorum quenching has been applied to the EU project ByeFouling, in which the Galician team has been an active participant together with other 17 teams of researchers from over 11 nations. The issue, at hand, is the so called Bio-incrustation and corrosion, which are responsible for the loss of many millions of euros every year.  It has turned out to be a mammoth task, year after year, the nightmare of cleaning and high consumption of fuel and so forth to get rid of the bio-incrustation and corrosion in ships ,vessels and others. Yet, hull bio-incrustation and corrosion is costing a lot of financial restraint in this sector and the increment in fuel consumption is now up to a wooping 40%, still the worst  part of all is the neverending loop of CO₂ emissions going into the air.  So_, ByeFouling, for instance, has been thoroughly studying the viability of new types of industrial coatings and protein inhibitors or even organic biocides and the likes of microorganisms and strategies covered so far in this article, which might hold some sort of anti-encrusting activity.

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What’s sexy about an Advanced Biotechnology Master of Science in A Coruña and Vigo? Well it is attracting university students and candidates from other areas of study since its demand has been skyrocketing in the different labor markets and job centers around Spain and Europe.

What’s the attraction? The broad-based approach of an advanced biotech masters degree could potentially entice a wide variety of recruiters. It also has something to do with the marketability of this degree among students and other scholars since the biotech industry rising demand is becoming a reality. Biotecnology as a degree is now outrunning other popular majors in the main 3 Galician cities. Registrations and admissions have increased three fold in the past year.

In fact, worldwide biotechs growth has been going up exponentially.  In Galicia, it is a reality and is supposed to have reached 60% of the number of Science majors and companies GDP’s. Over 45 companies have joined the cluster Bioga, which in 2013 took a wooping revenue of 56 million euros. They have employed so far well over a thousand people alone in Galicia.

Pedro Pablo Gallego, who is the Advanced Biotechnology Masters coordinator also says “It is a very attractive degree”, which is offered in Vigo and A Coruña. “You can complete this degree by accessing 8 different majors”, “and it is a master with a lot of marketability , some people say that the pharma research and industry is good enough, however, Biotech i s on the rise and the milk, wine, beer brewery and fertitlity industry are leaning more towards biotech engineers .. as more reliable and well prepared people for their businesses…”.

‘We want students to get in touch with the real projects and working environment’

Advanced Biotechnology Masters in A Coruña and Vigo kickstarted in 2010 and its application numbers are rising by the hundreds. 30 slots are open for both universities this year. 15 slots for each college . “We have credibility and the word of mouth works pretty well too.” We got students coming now from Madrid, Salamanca and South America”.

The students work experience placement and teaching staff participation in concert with companies are paramount. The coordinator explains “we want students to get in touch with the real projects and working environment; the real problems they will encounter along the way, and how to get to solve them in the workplace too.”

The Universidad of Santiago Compostela, in Galicia offers its own master of science in Biotech. This degree kicked off steadily in 2001 and, since 2010 it has given shape to its own courses and current format. It is run by the Ph D in Microbiology ,Tomás González, and all the teaching staff is exclusively from USC, not loaned staff like in the other colleges. Nevertheless, the content of the courses, their syllabi and work placement in companies are more intense at the A Coruña and Vigo sites.

The masters lasts for at least 18 months, what is the equivalent to 3-4 semesters. The final term paper is pretty much a practical project than a final end of term exam. It is leaning towards the students or candidates’labor marketability and future work experience.

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Grapes hold the secret key to eternal youth. From the chaff of the Galician Albariño, the residue that remains after the pressing of the grapes in a cellar. i-Grape extracts a natural liquid with antioxidant and antibiotic properties from the chaff itself. Usages range from cosmetic creams to pharma and veterinary treatments. i-Grape, which has just launched , is the brainchild of a research group at the University Campus in Santiago de Compostela. They have also patented successfully their product and have been awarded several prizes like the prestigious Argos award as the best start-up-company of the year. Businesses in Galicia are now on the rise due to groups of scientists and scholars that willngly get together to research and work on new projects.

Grapes secret is their huge content of Polyphenols, which act as antioxidants and protect cells and body chemicals against damage caused by free radicals, reactive atoms that contribute to tissue damage and prevent aging, cardivascular diseases and cancer. They appear in huge quantities in wine, and that is why a moderate consumption of wine is good for our health. Also they remain in the wine chaff, which is employed by the wine cellars to produce aguardientes (Galician sugar cane liquor) and it is a residue or substance that is seemingly hard to dispose of and rather unmanagable and costly for some wineries.

Juan Verdes,  one of i-Grape line managers says “Our own raw materials, like the Galician chaff, is great for a company like ours, we can solve a problem for the wineries and in the process, we can do some business .”

Grapes secret is their huge content of Polyphenols, which act as antioxidants

A Ponteareas  company will exploit the rights to the patent for cosmetic creams whereas the Coristanco farm and another one in Ulla have already tested the organic antibiotic in cows, with zero side effects. Overall, in the milk production in Galicia. Juan Verdes  points out that “The product by i-Grape allows the cows to be treated naturally for Mastitis without the use of synthetic antibiotics, but the organic ones they have just marketed are much healthier, and most of the times the cattle has to be quarantined if otherwise.’

The humble trading beginnings of i-Grape, from a Galician university campus research group to a well-established and innovative business, sparked at LIDSA, the Laboratorio de Investigación e Desenvolvemento de Solucións Analíticas, linked to the Department of Chemistry at the University Campus in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Marta Lores, an experienced researcher lead a team that has been researching the main properties and applications of the Galician grape chaff always in concert with the Top 5 Galician wineries and cellars.

After a few startling discoveries,  the company’s success is based on having achieved favorable peer reviews in scientific magazines nationwide. Then, they came up with the idea of setting up the company and started off trading rightaway. Marta Álvarez joined the team of scientists at the company together with the local big pharma researcher Jesús Álvarez and two more capitalist investors were added to the company’s roster: Daniel Gómez and Juan Verdes, both of them hold MBA’s, which makes them perfect candidates to manage the financial and trading side of the i-Grape business.