nir-vana innovation network

This Spanish biotechnology company has two main lines of activity:

1-. Microbial bioprospecting, covering the whole bioprospecting process, from sampling to the implementation of the final process or product in the client’s facilities:
- Sampling. The company has a vast experience in the collection of samples from a range of different sources, including extreme environments, food industries and human-associated samples, among others. When collecting samples, maximum sterility and optimal conservation are ensured until the processing of the samples, as well as collection of all necessary metadata and of an adequate number of samples for each condition, allowing to obtain statistically significant results.
- Isolation. After the sampling process, the company combines traditional culturing methods using optimized microbial growth media, with the latest advances in culturing techniques, including adaptive evolution strategies and an Augmented Bioprospecting Platform, a system developed in house for cultivating microorganisms that allows to increase the number of cultivable microorganisms by applying nutrient gradients.
- Selection and characterization. Once the samples have been cultured, individual strains or simplified microbial consortia are isolated and conserved for future uses. The next step is to characterize these strains and consortia to detect microbial activities of interest and, in this sense, the company offers a range of services: taxonomic and functional characterization using omic analyses; characterization using microbial models; screening for antioxidant or antiobesity activities using a Galleria mellonella model; application of chemical and molecular techniques to detect and quantify production of a certain enzyme or metabolite.
- Production. The company offers small-to-medium scale productions, with food-grade facilities and means to produce microbial cultures of up to 120 litres at a time that can be then conserved either as fresh or lyophilised biomass.
- Personalized technical support. Finally, the company offers personalized technical support for the implementation of the novel process or the development of the novel products in the client’s facilities. This technical support covers several areas, including but not limited to: the on-site production of microbial biomass, the adaptation of spaces so they are adequate for handling foodstuff, personalized training activities and courses for staff members.

2-. Creation, production and commercialization of its own products, in particular, microbial-based products for the food industry. The company also owns a collection of microbial strains with different applications as food starters, probiotics, or bioremediation agents. Their strains are available for licensing under terms to be discussed.

The company is searching for European and overseas organizations that would be interested in subcontracting R+D activities with them, licensing their microbial strains, or outsourcing routine biomass production or microbial analyses with them. The company offers different and innovative services and is ready to work with other entities by providing them. The company has come to automate some processes and that is why it can offer its services to be outsourced or licensed, with proven security.

Advantages & innovations

The company was founded in 2016 by researchers from academy and industry, and has an interdisciplinary team of highly qualified professionals in the field of industrial microbiology. The bioprospecting services offered are carried out by integrating traditional cultivation techniques with multiomic approaches, resulting in a holistic interpretation of each particular project. There is a special interest in microbial strains that can be used in industrial applications. For this reason, the company has an internal R&D line focused on the isolation of new strains from different samples. Up to date, more than 75 different samples have been analyzed, and more than 600 strains belonging to more than 120 different species have been isolated. Taxonomic and functional characterization of these strains, which are now available to clients, has revealed that they can be used in a wide range of applications, such as environment and energy (i.e. improving the nutritional quality of compost, bioremediation, or biostimulation), food starters (i.e. fermented food and beverages) and probiotics. Additionally, the company has other internal R+D lines that aim to further improve the bioprospecting process, for example, to isolate a larger number of cultivable bacteria, to develop new in vivo screening models based on the use of invertebrate organisms, and to improve the application of MinION sequencing to metagenomic data. The innovative nature of these bioprospecting strategies has been recognized in internationally renowned scientific journals, such as Nature Biotechnology and Nature Methods. Furthermore, the company has published over 25 papers in international scientific journals, participated in 9 R+D projects with national or international funding, received 6 innovation prizes, and is certified in ISO 9001:2015 for the isolation and genomic/phenotypic characterization of microorganisms, as well as for the study of environmental microbiomes.

Stage of development

Already on the market

Partner sought

The company is searching for European and overseas organizations that would be interested in subcontracting R+D activities with them, licensing their microbial strains, or outsourcing routine biomass production or microbial analyses with them. The company is interested in making its services available to other companies and organizations that may need them. The way in which these companies can access to innovative services may vary depending on the characteristics of the interested entity and the type of product or service required. The company is looking for public-private collaborations with national and international entities, aimed at enhancing knowledge transfer between the same company and other entities that may subcontract R+D activities with them, license their microbial strains, or outsource routine biomass production or microbial analyses with it.