Postdoctoral researcher Igor Otero, from the Center for Research in Biology of Bacteria and Bacteriophages (CEPID B3), was awarded a R$12,000 grant to support his participation in the Global Bioeconomy Alliance Annual Conference 2025: “Key Technologies in the Bioeconomy”, held from October 1 to 3, 2025, in Helsingør, Denmark. The award was granted by the Global Bioeconomy Alliance following a competitive selection process among early-career researchers worldwide. In addition to receiving the grant, Otero’s work was selected for an oral presentation at the event.

In his presentation, the researcher outlined results and future perspectives from studies conducted at the Laboratory of Microorganism Genetics (LGM), the CEPID B3 branch at São Paulo State University (Unesp). Titled “Enzybiotics: Innovative biocatalysts to support sustainable citriculture,” the talk highlighted the use of enzymes derived from bacteriophages—viruses that infect only bacteria—as promising tools to control plant disease-causing microorganisms, with potential applications in sustainable citrus farming.

Part of Otero’s research focuses on the production of viral enzymes known as endolysins, which are capable of degrading target bacteria. “Endolysins are enzymes produced by bacteriophages in the late stage of infection, causing the bacterial cell to lyse and allowing the phage to spread to other cells,” the researcher explains. These molecules have been investigated as alternatives to traditional pathogen control methods, especially in the context of growing concerns about antimicrobial resistance and agricultural sustainability.

One of the challenges in this field is the production of these enzymes in conventional biological systems, such as those based on living bacteria, since some of them may be toxic to the very cells used as protein “factories.” To overcome this limitation, Otero will now invest in approaches based on cell-free expression systems, which isolate bacterial cellular machinery and enable protein synthesis in test tubes, without the need for living organisms. “Even outside a living cell, the cellular components remain active and are able to produce the proteins of interest,” he notes.

During the conference, Otero was invited to apply cell-free expression systems in collaboration with the Technical University of Munich (Germany), marking the beginning of a new partnership and a postdoctoral research stay abroad. According to the researcher, mastering these techniques may contribute both to the production of toxic proteins and proteins that are difficult to solubilize, thereby expanding applications in biotechnology and sustainable agriculture. Upon returning from his research stay abroad, the expectation is that incorporating this technology into new studies will broaden the possibilities for producing and characterizing enzymes of biotechnological interest, benefiting multiple CEPID B3 research lines as well as the international scientific community.