Sónia P M Ventura

University of Aveiro | UA · Department of Chemistry

An innovative biorefinery approach was developed to obtain multiple high-value compounds from a marine bacterium. Bio-based solvents as sustainable alternatives to develop more sustainable downstream processes.

Haloarchaea make up a class of untapped marine microbial resources that constitute a promising source of valuable compounds with unique characteristics. Bacterioruberin is a C50 carotenoid produced by haloarchaea that possesses interesting antioxidant properties and bioactivities relevant to the food and cosmetic industries. As a substitute for the...

Pressurized techniques are straightforward for high-scale applications and highly controllable, which seems an excellent strategy for recovering unstable natural compounds. In this work, the main advance was the development of a platform based on the pressurized liquid extraction coupled in-line with a solid-phase extraction step (PLE-SPE) combined...

This study delved into the potential of utilizing deep eutectic solvents for extracting collagen from Atlantic codfish skins, comparing their efficacy with the traditional acetic acid extraction method. Subsequent to enzymatic hydrolysis, we obtained specific bioactive peptides, which were then encapsulated within chitosan-TPP hydrogels for targete...

Microalgae, macroalgae and cyanobacteria are photosynthetic microorganisms, prokaryotic or eukaryotic, living in saline or freshwater environments. These have been recognized as valuable carbon sources, able to be used for food, feed, chemicals, and biopharmaceuticals. From the range of valuable compounds produced by these cells, some of the most i...

The use of macroalgae, microalgae and cyanobacteria for metal sorption has been widely reported. Still, there are no studies allowing a direct comparison of the performance of these biomasses, especially while evaluating metal competition. The simultaneous sorption of Co²⁺, Cu²⁺, Ni²⁺ and Zn²⁺ present in a multi-elemental solution by six macroalgae...

BACKGROUND When the human population increases, so does the need to explore a wider range of feedstocks and biomasses, such as cyanobacteria. However, a deeper understanding of the growth patterns and pigment production is required to support the selection of the most beneficial species and conditions for industrial production. The growth and pigme...

Concentrated in the skins of red grapes are the anthocyanins, the primary colorants responsible for the fruits' reddish-purple color. These colorants are recognized for their significant antioxidant properties and potent nutraceutical and pharmaceutical ingredients. Nevertheless, their widespread use is compromised by the (i) need for more efficien...

Haloarchaea microorganisms are little explored marine resources that can be a promising source of valuable compounds with unique characteristics, due to their adaptation to extreme environments. In this work, the extraction of bacterioruberin and proteins from Haloferax mediterranei ATCC 33500 was investigated using aqueous solutions of ionic liqui...

Marine-derived food wastes mainly include seafood, fish and feed production resources. From crustaceans, traded annually, 6 to 8 million tonnes of valuable shrimp, lobster and/or crab shells are produced worldwide. In this systemic work, the researchers with complementary technical expertise, covering the fields of chemical engineering design, chem...

Propolis is a functional food ingredient classified by its physical-chemical characteristics, vegetal source, bee species, and geographical origin. Due to its complex nature and variable composition, the massive use of propolis extracts would require standardization. Several techniques for recovering bioactive compounds from propolis have been repo...

Cyanobacteria are indicated as organisms that can possibly support Mars colonization, contributing to the production of oxygen and other commodities therein. In this general context, the aim of this work was to evaluate the ability of three species of cyanobacteria (Anabaena cylindrica, Nostoc muscorum, and Arthrospira platensis) and a green microa...

Cyanobacteria are considered a factory of added-value compounds. However, knowledge about the array of interesting compounds that could be extracted from these prokaryotic organisms is still very limited. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a widely used technique for metabolic profiling that allows an overview of the main metabolites...

In the search for a better and brighter future, the use of natural luminescent renewable materials as substitutes for synthetic ones in the energy field is of prime importance. The incorporation of natural pigments (e.g., xanthophylls and phycobiliproteins) is a fundamental step in a broad spectrum of applications that are presently marred by their...

Bio-Based Solar Energy Harvesting In article number 2104801 by Sandra F.H. Correia, Paulo S. André, Rute A.S. Ferreira, and co-workers, a proof-of-concept for a solar optical thermal sensor based on sustainable aqueous solutions operating in the Internet of Things field is demonstrated. This self-powered system can estimate temperature and send thr...

Microalgae have an outstanding capacity to efficiently produce value-added compounds. They have been inspiring researchers worldwide to develop a blue biorefinery, supporting the development of the bioeconomy, tackling the environmental crisis, and mitigating the depletion of natural resources. In this review, the characteristics of the carotenoids...

The Internet of Things (IoT) fosters the development of smart city systems for sustainable living and increases comfort for people. One of the current challenges for sustainable buildings is the optimization of energy management. Temperature monitoring in buildings is of prime importance, as heating account for a great part of the total energy cons...

Marine-derived food wastes mainly include seafood, fish and feed production resources. From crustaceans, traded annually, 6 to 8 million tonnes of valuable shrimp, lobster and/or crab shells are produced worldwide. In this systemic work, the researchers with complementary technical expertise, covering the fields of chemical engineering design, chem...

Cytochrome c (Cyt-c), a small mitochondrial electron transport heme protein, has been employed in bioelectrochemical and therapeutic applications. However, its potential as both a biosensor and anticancer drug is significantly impaired due to poor long-term and thermal stability. To overcome these drawbacks, we developed a site-specific PEGylation...

Sustainable extraction processes based on alternative solvents to recover bioactive compounds of different raw materials have been highlighted as excellent alternatives to supply the needs of society towards a bioeconomy strategy. Little is known about the safety and biological effect of compounds extracted by these processes. In this work, caroten...

Immunoglobulin Y (IgY) represents an important class of antibodies, being present in egg yolk, with relevant medical applications and involving non-invasive methods of extraction. However, due to the complexity of egg yolk, the purification levels required for use in most medical applications demands the application of multi-step and cost-intensive...

BACKGROUND Natural products are currently in the spotlight due to the increasing awareness of consumers. Among these products is phycocyanin (C‐PC), a blue colorant that can be extracted from cyanobacteria – a poorly explored feedstock – and applied in several fields, due to its argued health benefits. Arthropira (previously called Spirulina) is th...

Bio-based ionic liquids (ILs) are being increasingly sought after, as they are more sustainable and eco-friendly. Purines are the most widely distributed, naturally occurring N-heterocycles, but their low water-solubility limits their application. In this work, four purines (theobromine, theophylline, xanthine, and uric acid) were combined with the...

Cholinium-based ionic liquids ([Ch]-based ILs) were investigated as electrolytes in the formation of aqueous biphasic systems (ABS) composed of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and sodium polyacrylate (NaPA) polymers. Both enhancement and decrease in the liquid-liquid demixing ability induced by electrolytes in PEG-NaPA aqueous biphasic systems were obser...

Ionic liquids (ILs) have been proposed as more efficient and sustainable solvents to replace volatile organic solvents (VOS). However, the drawbacks associated to their use are still limiting the regular...

Currently, the ability to produce several kinds of water-soluble red natural colorants makes the genus Talaromyces particularly important to the dye industry, which can be an alternative to the use of harmful synthetic colorants. In this study, colored compounds produced by Talaromyces amestolkiae were extracted, characterized chemically and the co...

Biopolymers are very favorable materials produced by living organisms, with interesting properties such as biodegradability, renewability, and biocompatibility. Biopolymers have been recently considered to compete with fossil-based polymeric materials, which rase several environmental concerns. Biobased plastics are receiving growing interest for m...

Biological drugs or biopharmaceuticals off patent open a large market for biosimilars and biobetters, follow-on biologics. Biobetters, in particular, are new drugs designed from existing ones with improved properties such as higher selectivity, stability, half-life and/or lower toxicity/immunogenicity. Glycosylation is one of the most used strategi...

There is a need for handy and fast techniques to purify biomolecules, increasing their stability and value, because the separation units are current bottlenecks in downstream processes. Solid-phase extraction is a technique that enables the purification of a compound by its adsorption from a liquid matrix. The AmberLite™ HPR900 OH resin allows the...

Zwitterionic compounds (ZIs) have been attracting much attention due to their properties. Unlike ionic liquids - constituted by separated ions - the ZI structures with their cations and anions covalently bonded exhibit added complexity and diversity, suggesting that their ecotoxicological behavior should probably not be extrapolated from those of i...

There is a strong industrial interest in the development of greener and more sustainable processes based on the use of renewable resources, and a biorefinery based on marine resources, such as macroalgae, stands as a major opportunity toward that end. In this work, Saccharina latissima (Linnaeus), a brown macroalga, was used as a source of pigments...

By using amino acids as anions, ten chiral ionic liquids (CILs) composed of tetrabutylammonium or cholinium as cations were synthesized by neutralization reactions and further characterized by assessing their optical rotation, thermophysical properties (melting and decomposition temperatures, density, viscosity and refractive index) and ecotoxicity...

The sustainable cellular delivery of the pleiotropic drug curcumin encounters drawbacks related to its fast autoxidation at the physiological pH, cytotoxicity of delivery vehicles and poor cellular uptake. A biomaterial compatible with curcumin and with the appropriate structure to allow the correct curcumin encapsulation considering its poor solub...

Hydrotropy is a well-established strategy to enhance the aqueous solubility of hydrophobic drugs, facilitating their formulation for oral and dermal delivery. However, most hydrotropes studied so far possess toxicity issues and are inefficient, with large amounts being needed to achieve significant solubility increases. Inspired by recent developme...

Phycobiliproteins are fluorescent proteins mainly produced by red macroalgae and cyanobacteria. These proteins, essential to the survival of these organisms, find application in many fields of interest, from medical, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic to food and textile industries. The biggest obstacle to their use is the lack of simple environmental an...

Ionic liquids (ILs) are salts with low melting points that can be used as solvents for mild extraction and selective fractionation of biomolecules (e.g., proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and pigments), enabling the valorisation of microalgal biomass in a multiproduct biorefinery concept, while maintaining the biomolecules’ structural integrity and...

The partitioning behavior of norfloxacin (more hydrophilic) and sodium diclofenac (more hydrophobic) was studied considering the use of aqueous two-phase systems (ATPSs) based in copolymers and dextran. For this research, the phase behavior of systems composed of water, a copolymer (Pluronic PE6400, Pluronic L35, Pluronic PE6800, PEG-ran-PPG monobu...

Ionic liquids (ILs), being related to the design of new environmentally friendly solvents, are widely considered for applications within the “green chemistry” concept. Due to their unique properties and wide diversity, ILs allow tailoring new separation procedures and producing new materials for advanced applications. However, despite the promising...

Artemisinin is a sesquiterpenoid lactone peroxide, known for its potent antimalarial activity that can be extracted from Artemisia annua L. This compound is only sparingly soluble in water, making its extraction using environmental-friendly and non-toxic aqueous solvents difficult. In the attempt to overcome this limitation, hydrotropes, which are...

Pigments, such as chlorophylls and carotenoids, have important applications in various fields, such as colorants in food, cosmetic or textile industries and in biomedical applications. Both pigments have an important role in the photosynthetic process and can be found in the marine green macroalgae genus Ulva. In this work, an integrated downstream...

Aerogel is a solid material comprised of more than 95% of air volume within a low-density porous framework. They are among the emerging materials of 21st century for a wide range of applications due to their exceptionally tunable properties of extreme lightness, non-flammability, thermal insulation, high specific area, and porosity. The growing dem...

Deep eutectic solvents as efficient solvents to extract and purify collagen from codfish skins.

This review will discuss, under the Circular Economy and Biorefinery concepts, the performance of the alternative solvents in the downstream process to recover natural pigments in a more sustainable way. Conventionally, pigments marketed on an industrial scale are produced through chemical synthesis by using petroleum derivatives as the main raw ma...

The green fluorescent protein (GFP) is a biomolecule used in many biological applications such as biomarkers and biosensors, which require high purity levels. It is usually obtained from recombinant Escherichia coli strains, which also produces other endogenous proteins, demanding multiple purification steps, and consequently, increasing the overal...

Temperature-dependent aqueous micellar two-phase systems (AMTPSs) have recently been gaining attention in the isolation of high-added-value biomolecules from their natural sources. Despite their sustainability, aqueous two-phase systems, and particularly AMTPSs, have not been extensively applied in the industry, which might be changed by applying p...

Knowledge on the molecular basis of ionic liquids’ (ILs) ecotoxicity is critical for the development of these designer solvents as their structure can be engineered to simultaneously meet functionality performance and environmental safety. The molecular effects of ILs were investigated by using RNA-sequencing following Daphnia magna exposure to imi...

The toxicity of Ionic Liquids (ILs) to aquatic organisms has been a matter of substantial interest, involving the toxicity assessment for a small number of species, which is limitative given...

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are biodegradable plastics of microbial origin, whose biodegradability and thermochemical properties make them greener alternatives to conventional plastics. Despite their high industrial potential, the PHAs’ high production costs still hinder their application. Mixed microbial biomass combined with agro-industrial wast...

Cyanobacteria are attracting the attention worldwide as a reliable and sustainable feedstock for the production of biofuels, food colorants and biochemically active compounds. Anabaena cylindrica (A. cylindrica) is a cyanobacterium with a significant widespread occurrence in Portuguese freshwaters, with phycocyanin and chlorophylls, compounds with...

Green fluorescent protein (GFP) is a useful biomolecule in biotechnology; however, its price makes its widespread application prohibitive. To overcome this issue, recently, the use of aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) for GFP purification was proposed as an alternative platform to reduce processing costs. Aligned with this goal, this study performed...

The tuneable properties of surface-active ionic liquids (SAIL) and Pluronics are dramatically magnified by combining them in aqueous solutions. The thermo-controlled character of both, essential in the extraction of valuable compounds, can be fine-tuned by properly selecting the Pluronic and SAIL nature. However, further understanding of the nanosc...

The poor photo-chemical stability of R-phycoerythrin (R-PE) has beena bottleneck for its broad-spectrum applications. Inspired by nature, a sustainable strategy of protein co-habitation to enhance the R-PE stability by embedding it in a solid matrix of gelatin, was here studied. Both pure R-PE and fresh phycobiliproteins (PBPs) extracts recovered f...

This work aims to take full advantage of ionic liquids’ (ILs) “designer solvent” nature in order to expand the applicability of solid-liquid biphasic systems (SLBS) as alternative chiral resolution techniques. To this purpose, twelve chiral ILs, bearing chirality on the cation or the anion, were used as chiral selectors in SLBS to selectively preci...

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) are a solution to overcome the mismatch between solar cells absorption and the solar spectrum, facilitating the integration of photovoltaic (PV) devices into the urban environment, since they can be incorporated in building façades and windows. Challenges include the search for environmentally friendly materia...

In this work, an approach to integrate the downstream processing of bioactive compounds present in the microalgae cells by combining the use of tensioactive compounds and aqueous biphasic systems (ABS) is proposed. For this purpose, several aqueous solutions using solvents with and without tensioactive nature were investigated on their capacity to...

Aqueous biphasic systems (ABS) are biocompatible systems applied in the extraction of biomolecules. Despite the biocompatibility of polymers and, particularly polyethylene glycol (PEG), to form ABS, their limitation in terms of phase separation is recognized. A new approach was recently proposed based on the use of ionic liquids (ILs) as adjuvants...

Separation and purification of biomacromolecules either in biopharmaceuticals and fine chemicals manufacturing, or in diagnosis and biological characterization, can substantially benefit from application of microfluidic devices. Small volumes of equipment, very efficient mass and heat transfer together with high process control result in process in...

This review highlights microfluidics-based separation and purification of proteins and nucleic acids with the focus on liquid–liquid extractions, particularly with biocompatible aqueous two-phase systems, which represent a cost-effective and green alternative.

Isochrysis galbana (I. galbana) is a microalgae species rich in biomolecules of high commercial value and industrial relevance. Despite the numerous studies done on the extraction of different compounds from microalgae, the complete valorization of the biomass under the biorefinery concept is scarce or even inexistent. The mixture of different comp...

In this work, the extraction and purification of carotenoids from the fruit Bactris gasipaes was developed. Ethanolic and aqueous solutions of ionic liquids (ILs), and surfactants were evaluated on the extraction of these pigments. Thus, we developed an optimized sustainable downstream process mediated by the best solvent with further isolation of...

In the last few decades, interest in primary and secondary metabolites from seaweeds has increased due to their high potential in important fields such as pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. In this context, the development of processes of extraction and purification that overcome the principal disadvantages of conventional methodologies is of utmost im...

BACKGROUND The demand for colorants from natural bio‐based sources is increasing. Violacein is a natural purple‐blue hydrophobic pigment with interesting bioactivity whose expression in genetically modified Yarrowia lipolytica production was successfully achieved. RESULTS In this work, several surfactants were tested in the extraction of violacein...

BACKGROUND l‐Asparaginase (ASNase) is an important biopharmaceutical for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL); however, with some restrictions due to its high manufacturing costs. Aqueous biphasic systems (ABS) have been suggested as more economical platforms for the separation/purification of proteins, but a full understanding of th...

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A downstream process combining PEGylation reaction and the use of enzyme conjugates acting as phase-forming components of aqueous biphasic systems (ABS) is here proposed. On this approach, the citrate buffer (pH = 7.0) was used simultaneously to stop the reaction (avoiding the use of hydroxylamine) and as phase forming agent inducing the phase sepa...

Ionic Liquids (ILs) are generically regarded as environmentally "harmless" and thus, assumed as "non-toxic". However, due to the endless design possibilities, their ecotoxicological profile is still poorly known. An accurate knowledge on the toxicity of a substance is required, under the scope of environmental regulation worldwide, before their app...

Riding on their size tunable properties, “Nanomaterials” have emerged as darling materials of 21st century for plethora of practical applications including optical. The nonlinear optical properties and optical emission of nanomaterial’s, enhances with the decrease in particle size due to the “quantum confinement effect.” Therefore, the quantum mech...

In this paper, we develop a new coarse-grained model, under the MARTINI framework, for Pluronic block copolymers that is able to describe the self-assembly mechanism and reproduce experimental micelle sizes and shapes. Previous MARTINI-type Pluronic models were unable to produce realistic micelles in aqueous solution, and thus our model represents...

Herein, it is shown the effective use of aqueous biphasic systems (ABS) in Fast Centrifugal Partition Chromatography (FCPC) for the purification of PEGylated cytochrome c conjugates. High recoveries (between 88% and 100%) and purities (~100%) were obtained. Both the unreacted cytochrome c and solvents may be recovered and reused, thus allowing the...

A tuneable thermoresponsive system based on combinations of sodium dodecyl sulfate surfactant with tetrabutylammonium chloride salt is presented as an integrated process for the solid-liquid extraction of violacein from bio-engineered...

Cytochrome-c from equine heart was kinetically and thermodynamically investigated either in its native (Cyt-c) and PEGylated forms with different PEGylation degrees (Cyt-c-PEG-4 and Cyt-c-PEG-8). Maximum activities were observed at 80◦C, and the protein forms irreversible deactivation was well described by a first-order kinetic. The results of acti...

The replacement of synthetic compounds by natural products witnesses an increasing demand from the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, food and nutraceutical industries. Included in the set of natural raw materials that are poorly explored are the macroalgae. Despite the detailed characterization and identification of most relevant biomolecules that are pres...

A series of novel analogues of glycine-betaine ionic liquids (AGB-ILs), viz. 1-(4-ethoxy-4-oxobutyl)-1-methylpyrrolidin-1-ium, N,N,N-tri(n-butyl)(4-ethoxy-4-oxobutyl)-1-phosphonium and N,N,N-trialkyl(4-ethoxy-4-oxobutyl)-1-aminium cations with ethyl, n-propyl and n-butyl alkyl chains, combined with the bromide anion, have been synthesized and chara...

Aqueous biphasic systems constituted by ionic liquids (IL-based ABS) are a target of investigation in the separation of high-value biomolecules. However, the identification of the molecular-level mechanisms ruling two-phase formation and extraction performance of these systems is crucial to successfully design effective separation processes. In thi...

R-phycoerythrin is a high added-value protein found in red macroalgae with several interesting properties. Despite the promissing results found when R-phycoerythrin is used as an optically active center in luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs), it still has some problems that can be attributed to the low stability of the R-phycoerythrin in presenc...

In this work, an experimental protocol to determine liquid-liquid phase diagrams of aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) in a chemical engineering course is described. Throughout this laboratory set of experiments, students will determine liquid-liquid ternary phase diagrams, comprising the solubility curves, tie-lines, tie-line lengths and critical po...