Speaker

About the speaker: 

Born in Monterrey (Mexico), Oscar pursued a BSc. Biotechnology Engineering at the Monterrey Institute of Technology. He then moved to the Netherlands to study a MSc. in Biotechnology, specializing in Environmental Technology. During this time in Wageningen his interest on biorefinery increased and intertwined with marine biotechnology, specially seaweed. He is currently a PhD candidate at Wageningen University where his project revolves about the development of a Palmaria palmata biorefinery. Besides scientific activities, he enjoys climbing, bouldering, and racket sports. 

Company info:

Bioprocess Engineering Chairgroup – Wageningen University and Research

Wageningen University & Research is a collaboration between Wageningen University and the Wageningen Research foundation. The strength of Wageningen University & Research lies in its ability to join the forces of specialised research institutes and the university. It also lies in the combined efforts of the various fields of natural and social sciences. This union of expertise leads to scientific breakthroughs that can quickly be put into practice and be incorporated into education. The scientific quality of Wageningen University & Research is affirmed by the prominent position they occupy in international rankings and citation indexes.

Presentation:

The project revolves around a biorefinery process to obtain functional proteins from the red macroalgae Palmaria palmata through enzyme-assisted extraction. Talking about enzyme assisted extraction, it has been proven nowadays that proteases and carbohydrases work synergistically; the combination of both enzymes result in a higher protein extraction efficiency. However, the use of proteases also results in degradation of the proteins. Because the end goal is to obtain functional proteins, they should be as intact as possible. Thus, in this presentation, Oscar will be discussing the sole use of carbohydrases and their optimization for the extraction of proteins from Palmaria palmata.