Abraham Galindo Priego

A biotechnologist who is driven by his goals of promoting biomass and waste valorization. Abraham is devoted to the Circular Bioeconomy and Industrial Biotechnology. He is interested in playing his role in the bioeconomy by contributing from two scopes: from an environmental point of view, better use of renewable and non-renewable sources; and from a business point of view, the production of value-added products from industrial waste and non-used biomass resources.

During his studies, Abraham realized his passion for biomass and waste valorization, and its potential to become a key technology in the transition to a greener economy. Because of that, he decided to broaden his knowledge in biorefineries, Environmental and Industrial Biotechnology. With the tenet of innovating in biomass valorization, his BSc Thesis centred on the valorization of olive leaves for biomedical applications.

With the pedigree of being a fervent and passionate scientist, Abraham decided to join Celignis in January 2022 for a five-month internship as a Chromatography Technician, playing a key role in the analysis of a wide range of biomass samples. His enthusiasm, hardworking personality and objective of working in a biorefinery-related company guided him to become part of Celignis as employee in June 2022. As per his multidisciplinary background, Abraham plays a crucial role at Celignis as part of the Bioprocess division, mainly as a researcher for different EU projects and bioprocess development services. His focus now it is on expanding his expertise and understanding of enzymatic and microbial processes. Besides that, Abraham also performs some of our analyses such as Starch Content, Enzymatic Hydrolysis or Calorific Value determination.

As part of his BSc Thesis, Abraham used some cutting-edge techniques for researching in the valorization of olive leaves. He applied high-pressure liquids for the extraction of phenolic compounds from olive leaves and supercritical fluids impregnation impregnation of PLA polymers with the phenolic extract. He performed 3D printing on those impregnated polymers to develop devices of high interest to the biomedical field due to their high antioxidant activity. The effect of some 3D printing parameters on the antioxidant activity of the devices were evaluated, which represented an unprecedented milestone, because it was the first time that the effect of 3D printing parameters was evaluated by analyzing bioactivities of the printed devices.

As part of EnXylaScope, he is participating in the extraction, purification and modification of hemicellulose polysaccharides to develop a product that can substitute petrochemicals in personal care and cosmetics products.

While working in Celignis, he has gained high-value experience in chromatographic techniques in our Ion Chromatography Department. He played a key role in the analysis and characterization of biomass, providing accurate analytical services for our clients and EU projects while gaining knowledge in biomass composition.

He was involved in handling our samples, analyzing and managing the data produced, performing maintenance and troubleshooting of HPLC instruments. He was also processing the chromatograms and performing statistical analyses to ensure a high-quality standard of the results.

As part of his current responsibilities in Celignis, Abraham is involved in many different projects related to bioprocess development services, mainly taking care of the enzymatic and microbial processes. He is researching on the modification of polysaccharides by enzymatic processes to provide them with desired characteristics. Besides that, Abraham is involved in the development of novel xylan sidechain-acting enzymes.

As per his work with enzymes, he is also performing some of our analyses for clients that involve enzymes, such as Starch Content and Enzymatic Hydrolysis.

 

BSc: In Biotechnology from the Universidad de Cadiz, Spain (2022).