Pichia pastoris
FCT researchers use a yeast to produce chitin from glycerol
The article "Biodiesel against cholesterol and cancer," published in the newspaper Expresso of January 24, highlighted the work conducted at the Laboratory of Biochemistry Engineering of FCT, in particular the discovery of an innovative and high-yield process to produce the biopolymer chitin from the fermentation of glycerol by the yeast Pichia pastoris.
Rui Oliveira and Maria Ascensão Reis explained that this biopolymer has a wide range of applications, in medicine (cholesterol-decreasing drugs or bone implants), water treatment plants or in the food industry.The traditional process uses crustacea as the source of chitin and is limited by insufficient capture, sazonality and the variation in the composition of shells.The fermentative process now described uses glycerol (a byproduct of biodisel production with residual commercial value) and the yeast Pichia pastoris, a microrganism with a high growth rate which accumulates chitin in its cell wall. After this fermentation, chemical processes are used to extract and purify the biopolymer.
This study was financed by a Portuguese biotechnological company which holds the patent of the process. Next steps include the small-scale optimization, pilot-scale demonstration and, eventually, the industrial production.
