Pietro Tedesco – SZN

Welcome to the “Blue Biome Boffins” Campaign where we interview different participants in the BlueRemediomics project, from Early Career Scientists to Senior Researchers, to learn more about their role and valuable work in making this project a success.

Pietro Tedesco is a researcher with Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (SZN, Naples), where his research focuses on the biotechnological potential of marine microorganisms, specifically related to identifying compounds and enzymes with high potential for pharmaceutical or cosmeceutical applications. For the BlueRemediomics project he is involved in Work Package 3, which aims to harness marine microbial communities for the discovery of processes and products. In this interview, we talked about why biotechnology can be referred to as “biology out of context” and the creativity involved in biotechnology to find completely different and novel functionalities for things that already exist.

How did you become interested in marine biotechnology?

Pietro Tedesco: As a kid, I watched a lot of science shows. There was a very famous science show in Italy, and I remember seeing a picture of a tobacco plant, which was glowing! This was one of the first attempts in gene engineering. They put the luciferase gene from the firefly into a plant of tobacco and as a result it glowed. That work had no particular application, it was the proof of concept, but it was in the 80’s and was quite extraordinary at the time. As a child I was quite impressed, and I started reading about biotechnology and when it was time to choose a university course, I had no doubts about what I wanted to do!

What are your primary research interests within marine biotechnology? 

Pietro Tedesco: The marine environment is large, unexplored and there are different extreme environments that we don’t know anything about! The bacteria that live in these environments have adopted several mechanisms to survive and thrive– special enzymes, compounds, fatty acids that we can actually use for different applications. In many cases, and the fun thing to me, these compounds that have a specific role in the environment, but we can use them for a completely different purpose. In some cases, these applications are pretty far from their original function in the original microorganisms.

I believe a good example is Polyhydroxyalkanoate, which is a polymer produced by many microorganisms for carbon storage and energy, but we discovered that it is also a very good bioplastic, so we’ve used this knowledge for our own purposes. That’s why I like to say that in many ways biotechnology is just “biology out of context”!

Describe your role in the BlueRemediomics project?

Pietro Tedesco: I am involved in Work Package 3, which is focused on the application part of the project. We utilize the knowledge and the resources generated by the other parts of the project, such as bioinformatics and culturomics to “exploit” this information for novel products that may have a biotechnological potential. In particular, we are interested in identifying new UV-protector compounds, so molecules that can absorb UV light and can be used as an active ingredient in sunscreen, avoiding the utilization of the current non-degradable components. This is because marine microorganisms are continuously exposed to UV light and have evolved different mechanisms to cope, such as producing a molecule that absorbs UV light.

What is the most exciting aspect of your research in the BlueRemediomics project? 

Pietro Tedesco: To me, the most exciting aspect is knowing that with our approach we can really evaluate the potential of the microbiome! Normally you isolate bacteria from sediment for example. However, we know that when we isolate, we are actually selecting a fraction, less than 1%, of the bacteria present in a certain area. This is because we know that the majority of bacteria cannot survive laboratory conditions, which are artificial conditions. Instead of focusing on single bacteria, BlueRemediomics is trying to cultivate an entire microbiome and see all the molecules of interest and exploit all the possible synergies. Another approach we are using is metagenomes. So, to put it simply, we take a sample and instead of isolating the bacteria, we sequence all the DNA of the samples, and then we analyse them. Thanks to databases and algorithms we can look for interesting genes that we can work with.

Have you discovered any important milestones or breakthroughs as part of your research in BlueRemediomics?

Pietro Tedesco: I am afraid not at the moment, or not yet! We are working on metagenomes, trying to obtain molecules without cultivating the original bacteria. It is pretty challenging but exciting and I believe we will make good progress soon.

Where do you see your research after the project has ended – which parts of it would you like to take forward in the coming years?

Pietro Tedesco: I would like to extend the approach that we have developed for compounds and include processes that other people can utilise. For example, bioremediation processes – exploring the possibility of using the microbiome to degrade pollutants and bioplastics.

Can you tell us one interesting fact about marine biotechnology most people wouldn’t know? 

Pietro Tedesco: What I can say is that there are a lot more marine microbes than most people can imagine! It is estimated that 1 mL of seawater contains around one million different bacteria and 10 million viruses. If you think about the size of the ocean, you can imagine that the number of bacteria is pretty much uncountable. And we know very little of it! The truth is that we know very little about the ocean in general. An example that’s often shared is that we have mapped the entire surface of the moon, and I think even of Mars, yet we have not mapped the seabed of our oceans.

Do you have any advice for people interested in getting into marine biotechnology research?

Pietro Tedesco: I think the best advice is to stay curious and be creative because it’s all about trying new functionalities for things that already exist. There are many enzymes that have certain functions in bacteria, but we can apply these enzymes for entirely different purposes.