Mariana Girão is a PhD student at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (ICBAS) and the Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR), both institutes from the University of Porto, Portugal. She was awarded with a STSM at Fundación MEDINA, Spain, hosted by Dr. Fernando Reyes, to explore novel chemistry from a marine Actinomycetota.
During her stay, Mariana worked on the isolation and structure elucidation of novel peptides produced by a seaweed-associated Actinomycetota. Previous analysis had demonstrated the presence of an unknown mass feature in the metabolome of a marine Actinomycetota strain, isolated from the tissues of a seaweed from the Portuguese northern cost. In Fundación MEDINA it was possible to isolate this novel metabolite, alongside with other analogues, and establish their chemical structures. The high-end methodologies and equipment available at Fundación MEDINA allowed the execution of a mass-guided isolation protocol, using a set of chromatographic techniques and high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS). The chemical structure of the novel molecules was established by a combination of HRMS and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments. The next step will involve screening the isolated marine natural products in a set of bioactivity tests to uncover any potential biotechnological applications.
In line with CA18238 Ocean4biotech objectives, this STSM fostered networking and cooperation between institutes and researchers to exchange knowledge, share expertise, and collaborate on the emergent topic of novel bioactive molecules discovery from marine microbes.
Mariana is deeply grateful for the opportunity to visit, work and learn at Fundación MEDINA, as well as COST support.
