Oceanus Seminar Series - 26 APR

OCEANUS SEMINAR SERIES | 26 APRIL 2023 | RAFAELA SANTOS | 11:30

Title : Bacillus spp. bioactive compounds control aquaculture bacterial diseases

Aquaculture bacterial outbreaks are responsible for huge annual economic losses worldwide, remaining a major challenge for sustainable aquaculture expansion. In a post-antibiotic era, there is a high demand for new eco-friendly approaches to control bacterial infections. Bacillus spp. has been exploited for the production of Natural Antimicrobial Compounds with multiple modes of action to prevent host infections. The heat-treated intestinal contents of important Mediterranean aquaculture fish were used to obtain Bacillus spp. Isolates were screened for their antimicrobial and immunostimulatory activities. Further, the extracellular compounds of 3 strains are EFFECTIVE in protecting zebrafish against a problematic fish pathogen. Based on these observations, the AquaBakillus project was developed, aiming to validate the use of purified Bacillus-compounds to control aquaculture bacterial outbreaks.

Name : Rafaela Santos

Rafaela Santos has dedicated her scientific career to Bacillus spp. biotechnological applications to control aquaculture bacterial infections. In the last few years, her research has focused on Bacillus spp. bioactive characterization, including production of antimicrobial and immunostimulatory compounds, and in vivo application. This resulted in 1 Licensing-Agreement and 2 Business-Ignition awards. Currently, she is the junior researcher of the ProbioVaccine project, and PI of the exploratory SEED project AquaBakillus.

The seminar will take place at CIIMAR headquarters (Boca da Baleia Auditorium ).

External members of CIIMAR should send an email to divulgacao@ciimar.up.pt, requesting authorization to enter the Leixões Terminal area

f you are a CIIMAR member you can also access last seminars recordings through the LINK.