Interdisciplinary UA & NAU team receives $3.3M to study biosurfactants

[Source: University of Arizona Communications] -- BIO5 investigators at The University of Arizona and a scientist at Northern Arizona University recently received a $3.3 million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation to research four classes of unique biosurfactants. Research applications are widespread and could include bioremediation of metal and oil contaminated sites, additives to pharmaceutical preparations such as skin creams and therapeutic ointments, use as anti-microbial dispersants, and more environmentally friendly detergents and cleaning agents. The UA portion of the grant is $2.8 million. The UA and NAU scientists are characterizing the fundamental properties of these molecules and looking at ways to scale-up production and purification for commercial applications. They also seek to discover new biosurfactants from bacteria obtained from unusual or unexplored environments.

Biosurfactants are molecules produced by bacteria that reside in the region of space where two phases of matter (such as a solid and a liquid) connect. Biosurfactants are attractive, environmentally-friendly “green” alternatives to more traditional synthetic surfactants because they exhibit less toxicity and higher biodegradability with comparable or better surface activity. “These biosurfactants have remarkably elegant chemical structures that have evolved over the last 3.5 billion years to be very good and very efficient surface active agents,” says BIO5 member Jeanne Pemberton, Ph.D., a professor in UA's chemistry department. “These unique molecules designed by nature possess decidedly different structural features compared to the types of surfactants previously designed by chemists.”

Surfactants are used in household and industrial cleaners, personal care products, and various manufacturing processes including food processing and the production of plastics, paints, coatings, textiles, pulp and paper, and agricultural products. It is a multi-billion dollar industry and growing.

Dr. Pemberton; BIO5 member Raina Maier, professor of Soil, Water and Environmental Science; BIO5 member Robin Polt, professor, Department of Chemistry; and Jani Ingram,, a chemist from NAU are the primary investigators on the new grant. UA Vice Dean for Graduate Studies Maria-Teresa Velez, who is also a co-investigator on this award, will help oversee the development of education and training opportunities targeting underrepresented students, ranging in age from high school through graduate school, and in-service teachers. “We need to more fully explore the microbial world for natural products such as biosurfactants that can be harnessed for the benefit of industry, biotechnology, and medicine,” says Dr. Maier. This newly funded research builds substantially on a recently completed NSF-funded joint effort between Drs. Pemberton and Maier.