Inês Ventura wins second place in the Climate and Biodiversity Trophy

PhD student Inês Ventura was awarded second place in the first edition of the Climate and Biodiversity Trophies, organised by the Maud Fontenoy Foundation.

Inês is developing her doctoral thesis at MARE and the Institute of Biosystems and Integrative Sciences (BioISI), with the aim of creating bioadhesives inspired by the natural glue produced by sea urchins. The young researcher wants these bioadhesives to be applied at a surgical level by ensuring their compatibility with the human body.

"Currently, the use of stitches or sutures in some surgeries, for example on soft tissues, still has some disadvantages. In these cases, the stitches are replaced by adhesives or surgical glues: there are two types, the synthetic ones, which although effective are toxic, and the biological ones, which are more biocompatible, but their adhesive strength is not as strong," explains Inês Ventura. "It's a solution that combines all the advantages: it's effective in the presence of fluids and has high adhesive strength. We're also trying to make it ecologically sustainable to produce."

This biodegradable glue, produced in the laboratory, is stronger, solidifies quickly and adheres easily to surfaces even in the presence of salt water. "We know that this adhesive [from sea urchins] is made up of proteins, sugars and salts. The first step is to identify the proteins to be produced," says Inês Ventura. To manufacture it in the laboratory, the researcher inserts the genetic information of these proteins into bacteria that replicate them on a large scale, to be purified later.

It was this work that earned Inês Ventura a place on the podium of the Climate and Biodiversity Trophy, a prize awarded by the Maud Fontenoy Foundation, which is dedicated to protecting the oceans, in partnership with Forvia, a foundation for promoting more sustainable mobility.