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360º PERSPECTIVES | ISSUE 7 | 2020/2021
From bacteriophages to biosurfactants: exploring the multiverse of microbiology
» There are more bacteriophages on earth than the combined number of all other organisms, possibly as many as 10 quintillion (that’s 10 followed by 30 noughts). HE 45 UNIQUELY OBSESSIVE PEOPLE who work at UWC’s Institute for Microbial Biotechnology and Metagenomics (IMBM) know they won’t discover more than an immeasurably tiny percentage of this group of viruses that only infect bacteria, but they’re happy to devote much of their careers to it. The IMBM has identified more than 130 phages that live on human skin and many others that thrive in a range of extreme environments. The IMBM researches microbial life, but it has a purpose beyond simply discovering tiny life forms. It was established as a research institute in the Department of Biotechnology in 2007 (its earlier guise, the Advanced Research Centre for Applied Microbiology, was established in 2001) to develop useful biotechnological applications of research in microbiology. Based in the Life Sciences
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Building, the Institute’s work includes international collaborations encompassing disciplines such as microbiology, genomics, molecular biology, enzymology, biochemistry, structural biology, nanotechnology, bioinformatics and analytical chemistry. Typifying its collegial, collaborative approach, it routinely makes its advanced laboratory facilities available to researchers from other departments and institutions. “Collaborations with industry and academia have been invaluable towards facilitating our involvement in multidisciplinary projects, where we can focus on our core expertise while still ensuring that what we initiate can be translated and developed further along the discovery pipeline. This has also been crucial for skills and knowledge transfer, especially for postgraduate students, many of whom have received the opportunity to exchange with an internationally leading laboratory to advance aspects of their research projects,” says Professor Marla Trindade, the Director of the IMBM. One of the IMBM’s areas of interest is studying the adaptations of organisms thriving in extreme environments such as
