- The overall objective of the R&D project ‘Nutrigen 4.0’It is monitoring, simulating and predicting a biotechnological process of obtaining nutraceuticals through advanced calculation tools and modeling
- The results obtained from the pilot initiative will implement new more efficient production processes by opening the possibility of customization thanks to the study of the genomic profiles of the fungal strains studied
- The project is part of "Aid to strategic R & D+i projects with industry 4.0" summoned by the GALEGA INNOVATION AXENCE (GAIN) of the program "Intelixent and sosible factory"
Project details
- Hifas da Terra and ANFACO-CECOPESCA They make up the consortium created for the development of the Nutrigen 4.0 project that will have a total budget of 2,058,312.86 € of which Hifas da Terra will receive 1,953.01 € (49%) and ANFACO-CECOPESCA 1,013,444.83 (51%).
- This is one of the nine initiatives selected in the current Intelixent Factory Program that conveys the Galician Innovation Agency aimed at improving the competitiveness of the strategic sectors of the Galician economy.
- See press release in PDF
The project Nutrigen 4.0 It is co-financed by the European Union, within the framework of the Feder Galicia Operating Program 2014-2020, with the thematic objective of "Promote technological development, innovation and quality investigation", to mention the productivity indicators (Feder) within the framework of "Products and services for health services" and having so far obtained the following results.
Hifas da Terra (HDT) and the Technological Center ANFACO-CECOPESCA They presented the industrial innovation project Nutrigen 4.0 through which They will implement 4.0 technologies in the intelligent and sustainable production of nutraceutics obtained from medicinal fungi, which will allow the improvement of the efficiency of production processes and the traceability of raw materials of natural origin, also opening the possibility of customizing certain formulas to specific needs from the genomic profile of the species analyzed.
The virtual presentation act “Nutrigen 4.0: Intelligent nutraceutical production processes based on the analysis of new biosynthetic routes of gay mushrooms in Galicia” It was issued from the central facilities of Hifas da Terra in Bora (Pontevedra) and had the intervention of the Scientific Director (CSO) of Hifas da Terra, Dr. Arturo Rodríguez, the Director of Research and Innovation (Crio) of Hifas da Terra, he Dr. Esteban Sinde Stompel and, on behalf of the Technological Center ANFACO-CECOPESCA, its general secretary, Mr. Juan Manuel Vieites Baptista de Sousa, And those responsible for Digitization and Industry 4.0 and Biotechnology and health, Hugo Barreiro and Celina Costas, respectively. The director of the GALEGA INNOVATION AXENCE (GAIN), Patricia Argerey Vilar, intervened in the presentation act highlighting the importance of the project both for its "Disruptive character" as for his "strategic bet ”. In this regard, he acknowledged that the human teams involved, of a highly qualified technological profile, will be the "key to addressing the challenges raised" and "They will contribute the necessary knowledge to build the industrial future of Galicia."
Innovation and competitiveness
The use of technologies 4.0 lands in the food sector and Healthcare Thanks to this new Nutrigen 4.0 project that “will allow developing the intelligent and respectful industry with the environment helping Galicia become a European reference in healthy eating,” said Dr. Esteban Sinde.
In this sense, Mr. Juan Manuel Vienites Baptista de Sousa added that this project and its particular commitment to industry 4.0 in the agri -food and biotechnological sectors is "Aligned with international trends" and "Mark the guideline for a new innovative productive model" For Galicia "Facilitating access to globalized markets achieved excellence".
The change in the next 31 months
This initiative, according to Dr. Arturo Rodríguez, is a "Transformational Project" For Hifas da Terra that will allow optimizing productive processes, developing new Nutraceutics based on very specific fractions of extracts with specific health activity.
Nutrigen 4.0 It is nourished by the results of previous R&D projects in which "We discovered that we lost the potential of the strains for not knowing all the details of the productive processes". Thanks to the experience of Fungitechnco Hifas da Terra discovered the potential of the mycelial culture while Cosmetinnova It allowed to improve the extraction process, the concentration of bioactive compounds and the increase in solubility, which affects the bioavailability of the compounds.
The fractionation
"Technology and processes determine the presence of bioactive compounds", Dr. Rodríguez sentenced. So, Nutrigen 4.0 It allows to address the subdivision "one step further in the extracted". This system allows to divide molecular structures into fractions to "identify bioactive compounds, as the pharmaceutical industry does."
The optimization of productive processes, as detailed by Dr. Arturo Rodríguez, will allow deepening the control sensory and real -time monitoring, but also in communication with warehouse control software, automated production management of production orders and automated quality analysis protocols.
In this sense, both for the monitoring of processes and the application of technologies aligned with industry 4.0, and for the study of molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in the production of bioactive compounds, the experience of Anfaco-Cecopesca will be essential. The Technology Center has a solid career in both areas of research, endorsed by multiple projects and recognition by administrations.
The integral changes expected of this project will be carried out in the central facilities of HFFAS da Terra in Bora (Pontevedra), where the pilot project will be carried out in "Highly technified rooms" to then be able to climb a validated productive system.
Nutrigen 4.0 project researchers. From left to right: Hugo Barreiro (Anfaco-Cecopesca), Elena Balboa (HDT), Celina Costas (Anfaco-Cecopesca) and Arturo Rodríguez (HDT).
Security and efficiency
As Dr. Esteban Sonde pointed out, the work in R&D D+I carried out for more than 20 years has allowed Hifas da Terra to evolve from traditional production to cultivation in bioreactors and nutraceutical development and drug production from high quality products derived from higher fungi.
In that sense, although the project will serve to have an exhaustive control of critical parameters of production, concentration and stabilization, it will also serve to study the production of secondary metabolites with medicinal activity based on the study of its genome using Big Data bioinformatic analysis.
Digitization of the productive process
The technologies that will be implemented in this regard, according to Hugo Barreiro, will include the use of Hyperspectral cameras and the selection and implementation of the Sensors more appropriate to effectively monitor productive processes. "If you can measure, you can improve the process," he argued. The cameras will allow automated control of nutraceutical production already "Through a pixel we can capture elements of interest without affecting the production process".
BIO TECHNOLOGIES
Celina Costas, responsible for Biotechnology and Health in ANFACO-CECOPESCA, specified the bio technologies that will be implemented in the productive process of nutraceutical in Hifas da Terra to analyze the Immunomodulating and antimicrobial activity of two of the fungal strains with which Hifas da Terra works. Genomics and Big Data will serve to "differentiate metabolic routes" while laboratory technologies "will determine the production of certain metabolites, their concentration and selection of fractions of extracts with greater effect."
This project will conclude with the realization of a clinical trial in patients for which a National Reference Center will have the collaboration. The results obtained will also be analyzed through 4.0 technologies.
Personalized formulas
Thus, the mathematical analysis of the various production, concentration and purification techniques of the active ingredients will allow, in this pilot study, to go one step ahead in the development of new formulas and improve the current ones based on their nature and their possible applications.
Hifas da Terra investigates the role of fungi in cancer and neurodegenerative, cardiovascular and autoimmune pathologies.