Young Mexican given award for developing bacterium that eats oil

Luis Caleb Damas, a Biotechnology Master’s student at Tec de Monterrey, has received the Sergio Sánchez Esquivel award from the Mexican Society of Biotechnology and Bioengineering (SMBB) for a thesis protocol on an “anti-oil” bacterium.

The 23-year-old’s research is based on the efficient use of a bacterium that organically degrades oil in the event of a spill on a body of water, such as a sea, and does so less expensively.

“Oil spills have a big impact on the environment. This bacterium produces 2 compounds that remove the oil: pyocyanin and rhamnolipids,” explains Luis Caleb.

The award was given during the 19th National Biotechnology and Bioengineering Conference, held from September 27 to October 1. A financial prize was also given.

The Sergio Sánchez Esquivel award is given to undergraduate and graduate researchers every two years. It’s the first time that a Tec student has been given a prize by the SMBB.

Seeking a cheaper and more effective process

Luis Caleb explains that the pyocyanin and rhamnolipid compounds help to isolate the oil and make it easier to remove.

“If you use bacteria, you can remove more than 90% without people having to go clean the oil up,” says the young scientist.

Caleb adds that this process is called bioremediation. Although it is already used, the young scientist is now looking to investigate a way to make the process cheaper and more efficient.

“The bacterium makes the 2 compounds, but producing them is complicated, as very little is produced, and the compounds vary with each bacterium.

“(As part of the research) we want to increase the production of both compounds and improve the removal of hydrocarbons from the water,” he says.

“We want to increase the production of both compounds and improve the removal of hydrocarbons from the water.”

He adds that the prior planning of the research that he will carry out during his master’s degree at Tec de Monterrey is known as a thesis protocol, which is what earned him the award.

This protocol is entitled “The design of rational metabolic engineering strategies for the co-production of pyocyanin and rhamnolipids in Pseudomonas aeruginosa IGPR1 for the bioremediation of water bodies polluted with hydrocarbons.”

“Right now, we’re at the strategic point of defining which genes we’re going to modify and we’re making our first attempts to modify the bacterium with the genes that we’ve identified.

“We’ll conduct the research during the rest of the semester and the next to see how efficient the removal of hydrocarbons is,” says Caleb.

His research was inspired by seeing an oil spill at sea

When he was younger, Caleb witnessed the damage caused by an oil spill on a trip to the beach on Padre Island, Texas, in the United States. 

“My dad explained that it was because the oil spill had reached the beach. At that time, I didn’t understand, but later I realized the huge impact it has.

“If it was awful for us to remove the black oil from our feet, how much more horrible was it going to be for the affected animals?” recalls Caleb.

The young man from Monterrey points out that his interest in biotechnology came from his father, who has a doctorate in the same area. 

“As a child, I heard about bacteria, parasites, DNA, and microbiology. I developed an interest as I was growing up,” he explains.

Caleb became interested in Metabolic Engineering during his degree course. After graduating, he applied to study for a master’s degree in Biotechnology at Tec de Monterrey.

That story and his area of study coincided during his graduate course, giving rise to an interest in investigating a more efficient way to deal with oil spills and reduce environmental damage.

Looking to a future with less ecological damage

“This project has (future) commercial applications. There’s a possibility of more spills around the world, so I’d like people to be able to access this information easily.

“I hope that it can be freely accessible because it’s cheap and easier to do than any other methods that are currently used,” says the young researcher.

Caleb adds that there are similar projects at universities such as UNAM, but some of them focus on only 1 of the 2 bacteria.

“Now we have to do the lab work, see how the planned modifications react, reject strategies, and improve the ones we already have,” says Caleb, who works at the facilities of the FEMSA Biotechnology Center on the Tec’s Monterrey campus.

“This project has (future) commercial applications. There’s a possibility of more spills around the world, so I’d like people to be able to access this information easily.”

He shares that he’ll not only work on this project but also on the applications of other bacteria to benefit humanity and mentions that he would like to teach at some point in his career.

“Applying the same process to other bacteria as we have done to this one means we can produce drugs easily and produce food supplements or bacteria that can help us produce very interesting compounds.

“My dream is to get to a very renowned university and be a lead researcher, have my own laboratory, and teach: to give people this range of opportunities,” concluded Luis Caleb.

Oil spills, a complex mix of many chemicals, have the potential to cause devastating impacts on the environment.

According to the United Nations, oil spills can kill corals, which support a fourth of all marine life, provide food security and livelihoods for at least 500 million people, and protect coasts by mitigating the impact of waves, storms, and floods.

In the event of a massive spill, human health can also be affected by direct contact with or inhalation of the oil, or by consuming contaminated seafood or fish.

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