Innovation Capabilities & Products

Morbidostat is a computer-controlled continuous culture device that automatically adjusts drug concentration to maintain constant growth inhibition in microbial cultures. As bacteria acquire mutations that give them resistance against drugs, they are able to tolerate higher drug concentrations and grow faster, thus removing selective pressure, the driving force of evolution. To compensate for this, morbidostat increases drug concentration sufficiently to keep bacteria at their original growth rate, therefore maintaining selective pressure over time. This system allows for data acquisition to model microbial evolution under antimicrobial stress, optimize biocide dosage strategies and develop highly antimicrobial-resistant strains used to test the performance of new biocides, among other applications.

Development of processes that allow extracting useful components of industrial interest from discards and food industry by-products and effluents. Biochemical characterization of useful components present in different kinds of fisheries products and by-products, such as skin collagen, visceral enzymes, chondroitin sulphate present in cartilage, chitin from crustacean shells and cuttlebone or protein hydrolysates obtained from muscle. Evaluation of potential applications of these compounds through the characterization of their biological activities (antioxidants, etc.) and functional properties for their use in different industries, such as biomedical, chemistry, cosmetic, food, etc.

Characterization of the photosynthetic properties and by-products of different phytoplankton species under laboratory, industrial farming and natural conditions.

MEIGO is a global optimization toolbox that includes a number of metaheuristic methods, as well as a Bayesian inference method for parameter estimation.

More information here.

Development of smart food labels based on models for oxidation, microbial growth, etc. that let consumers know when food is no longer fit to eat, helping to prevent food waste, and give information on freshness, package temperature, etc.

SSm GO is a Matlab toolbox with several global optimization algorithms for nonlinear optimization problems (NLPs and MINLPs) based on Scatter Search.

More information here.

Development of non-invasive methods and technologies (i.e. hyperspectral imaging technology) for quality inspection of food products.

Matlab code to perform simulations and optimize packaging design using natural antimicrobials (carvacrol) for hake (Merluccius merluccius). In addition, different polymers are considered as possible active packaging materials.

More information here.

DOTcvpSB is a toolbox written in MATLAB that uses the control vector parameterization (CVP) method to handle continuous and mixed integer dynamic optimization problems. DOTcvpSB has been successfully applied to several problems in systems biology and bioprocess engineering.

More information here.

Multi-scale modeling for flexible decision-making and optimization of complex processes (i.e., sterilization) based on safety and quality control of food products using non-invasive techniques (software sensors, etc).