Borja Valverde Perez

Project title

Metagenome-based Metabolic Modeling for Green transition of Water Treatment – application to Methanotrophy

What is your project about?

The project seeks new ways to design environmental biotechnologies taking advantage of bioinformatics. The project will develop modeling tools describing the key microbes involved in the biological conversion and recovery of pollutants, allowing for better optimization of the highly diverse microbiomes.

How did you become interested in your particular field of research?

I'm part of the Microbial Ecology and Technology research group at DTU Sustain. After years of exposure to bioinformatics, I could see that the tool was mostly used to describe and improve our understanding of microbial communities and their functionalities, but never for design - a great missing opportunity. Being the process engineer of the research group, it felt natural that I should be the one pursuing this new research area - metabolic modeling for design.

What are the scientific challenges and perspectives in your project?

The main challenge lies on the transformation of the very detailed metabolic networks retrieved via bioinformatics into useful modeling tools for design, by systematically reducing complexity and identifying the so called keystone species driving the performance of the bioreactors. The approach and the tool can be applied for any biological system, both engineered and natural.

What is your estimate of the impact, which your project may have to society in the long term?

The tool can help addressing three main challenges our society faces. I will focus on removal of trace chemicals, which deteriorates the water quality from the water bodies we use for water supply. However, this tool will help also to transit towards cost-efficient circular economy for complex organic wastes. Furthermore, the knowledge gained on methanotrophy can help us to better understand the development of methane in natural ecosystems and mitigate these emissions in the context of climate change.

Which impact do you expect the Sapere Aude programme will have on your career as a researcher?

This is a boost to my confidence as a researcher. Furthermore, it will allow me to specialize in an emerging field, which I believe will be more and more relevant over time. Once the tool is developed, I can use it to interrogate many other engineering systems with unresolved issues (e.g., GHG emissions, bio-conversion of wastes into valuable chemicals, etc.). From now, large part of my career and research activities will develop from this research idea.

Background and personal life

Simple guy who enjoys traveling and going out with friends, visiting my family and school friends back in Spain, love pets. I have a friendly personality, although I am a bit introvert or shy at first.