Leopoldo Naranjo Briceño is an Agronomist Engineer and Philosophical Doctor in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. He graduated Summa cum laude in June 2003 from the School of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the Universidad de León, Spain. Subsequently, Dr. Naranjo secured a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the prestigious Instituto de Biotecnología de León (INBIOTEC), where he developed in-depth knowledge of genetic and metabolic engineering in filamentous fungi and discovered novel biotechnological compounds with promising biological activities for human and animal health.​​
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Since July 2020, Dr. Naranjo has served as the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) at Spora. This disruptive Chilean biotechnology platform aims to develop a new material culture using fungal mycelium to create mycotectures and self-generate mycelium fabrics. At Spora, Dr. Naranjo and his R&D team designed a powerful pipeline based on an interdisciplinary approach to create a unique and sustainable material using fungal mycelium and the remarkable ability of extremophile fungi to grow in extreme conditions and myco-synthesize nanoparticles.
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This holistic vision, based on a complex convergence of cutting-edge technologies such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, applied mycology, omics sciences, bioinformatics, materials sciences, synthetic biology, and genome editing systems (genes overexpression and/or CRISPR/Cas9), among other dissimilar deep-tech disciplines, is intuitively founded on a core principle common to all Biotechnology areas: Biodiversity. The ongoing search for new microbiological and genetic resources is reflected in the various expeditions undertaken by the R&D team in pristine regions with high mycological diversity, with a high emphasis on the Patagonian rainforest.
Principal Coordinator:
First advanced training on Oxford Nanopore DNA sequencing and data analysis: Discovering the amphibian's cutaneous microbiome and killer-chytrid fungi in the Amazon rainforest.
UNU-BIOLAC / Ikiam
09.21.2020
Principal Coordinator:
First Course on Introduction to Mycorremediation
GIRO-IRTA / Ikiam / AECID
07.25.2020
UPCOMING EVENTS
Principal Coordinator:
First Course on Introduction to Endomycorrhizal Fungi.
Ikiam / Yachay Tech / ESPOL / CEDIA
08.10.2020
DOCUMENTARY FILM ON PETROLEUM BIOTECHNOLOGY
Petroleum biotechnology could be defined as "the study and rational use of the biodiversity, its genetic, enzymatic, and metabolic resources, to give high-added value to the products and processes of the petroleum industry in its whole-value chain, and to contribute to mitigating the environmental impact of its operational activities" (Naranjo et al., 2019).
YEAST ISOLATED FROM NATURAL ASPHALT BLOOM OF AMAZON RAINFOREST
Obtaining extremophilic hydrocarbonoclastic biocatalysts for bioremediation of soils contaminated with recalcitrant crudes in the Ecuadorian Amazon. AECID Project founding. Ikiam University 2020.
MICROBIOME ROLE IN AMAZON AGROFORESTRY SPECIES
Role of the plant microbiome in enhancing agroforestry species resilience to abiotic stress. The Apply Microbiology Group is getting the first evidence of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi inhabiting into ancestral Ilex guayusa, an agroforestry plant anciently used by the Amazon indigenous communities as a “holy grail of life” that presents a growing agroeconomic interest due to its high demand in the national and international market.
THE MYCELYUM NETWORK
REMAINS STRONG & CONNECTED
- FANTASTIC FUNGI -
Paul Stamets @paulstamets
Mycologist, Author, Inventor, Teacher, Earthling
Fantastic Fungi, Official Film Trailer | Moving Art by Louie Schwartzberg
SARS-CoV-2: BIO-BASED MASK USING THE CRISPR/Cas13a TECHNIQUE
As an innovative development of possible targets to fight against the COVID-2019 pandemic, this proposal aims to use bioinformatics tools and synthetic biology to harness the structural nature of the virus, its own infectious mechanisms, and the virus-host interactions for “tricking, trapping and destroying” SARS-CoV-2.