Amira M Embaby has completed her PhD from Alexandria University - Institute of Graduate Studies and Research (IGSR) and Postdoctoral study from Greifswald University, Germany in 2013. She is a Lecturer in the Institute of Graduate Studies and Research (IGSR)-Alexandria University. She published seven papers. She has been serving as a reviewer in some journals such as Biochemical Engineering Journal, African Series Journals and others.

The remarkable decrease in the global reserve from fossil fuel along with the continuous increasing demand accompanying massive motors technologies addressed the urgent need for sustainable and renewable energy resources. In this context, present research highlights a low cost effective rapid and environmentally eco-friendly approach to produce biodiesel from an isolated oleaginous bacterium. MALDI-TOF–MS (Mass Assistant Laser Desorption Ionization - time of flight-mass spectrometry) analysis and molecular identification through 16S rDNA technique taxonomically designated this bacterium as Sphingomonas sp. EGY1 DSM 29616. One variable at a time approach (OVAT) was anticipated to delimit key determinants provoking significant influence on total lipid productivity from this bacterium. Data revealed that cheese whey upon its addition to mineral medium was the most preferable waste among seven tested agro-industrial wastes directing cell machinery towards achieving perceivable levels of accumulated total lipids. Ingredients of mineral medium had either significant inhibitory impact at P<0.01 (e.g., yeast extract) or non-significant influence at P>0.05 (e.g., (NH4)2SO4, KH2PO4 and MgSO4). On top and above, cheese whey solo does satisfy the nutritional requirements of the bacterium not only from carbon and nitrogen but also from mineral salts. As a consequence, the formulated medium prompting total lipid production contained only cheese whey (25%v/v) in distilled water. Furthermore, optimal conditions favoring lipid production (430 mg/L) were cheese whey based - distilled water medium, pH 7.0 at 30oC at 150 rpm, 10%(v/v) inoculum size and 36 hrs incubation time. Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) showed that the raw produced lipid had an almost quite similar pattern to that of Triolein standard (a typical triglyceride molecule). Lipid profile on Gas chromatography (GC) revealed the presence of appreciable levels of long chain C16-C18, mono-saturated fatty acids upon comparison with other fatty acids. Thin layer chromatography (TLC) revealed the presence of triglyceride – fatty acids in the raw produced lipid. MALDI-TOS – MS inferred the presence of both diglyceride fatty acids and triglyceride fatty acids. Promising characteristics of the present trans–esterified lipid along with the low cost effective rapid approach presented here in turn underpin the great potentiality of its utilization as renewable sustainable energy resource.

Anna Chizhayeva defended the Doctoral dissertation 13 years ago at the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. She has published more than 40 papers. Her area of scientific interests is biology of lactic acid bacteria, probiotics, bacteriocins.

Fodder probiotic preparations allow improving the existing systems of cultivation and feeding of farm animals are an important component of modern rational feeding of animals. The advantage of the probiotics containing lactobacilli is their harmlessness for a macro organism at them is absent accustoming at the long use and by-effects. As a result of selection and screening of the most active strains of lactic acid bacteria (LAB), we created 2 consortia of lactobacilli for receiving a probiotic preparation for the feed additives intended to farm animals and a bird. Consortium Lactobacillus casei Lts 114 and Lb. fermentum Ls 129 is designed on the basis of the cultures allocated from the flour environment. Consortium Lb. acidophilus 4Sh1, Lb. fermentum 3sh1 and Lb. pontis 9K3 consists of the cultures allocated from koumiss and shubat. Both consortia possess the biocompatibility of strains among themselves expressed by antagonistic and acid-forming activity. The nutrient medium on the basis of whey and vegetable raw materials-wheat, peas, corn and buckwheat in the form of nanopowders (according to electronic microscopy the maintenance of nanoparticles in size 20-500 nanometers-20%) for cultivation of consortia is created. This nutrient medium provides high quantity of LAB cells-1012 CFU/ml and also increases antagonistic activity of consortia-diameter of zone growth inhibition of Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633-33 mm. Parameters of deep cultivation of LAB consortia on the developed nutrient medium are determined and the technological modes of the probiotic production for feed additives are fulfilled.

Amangeldi A A is a junior Researcher in laboratory of Biotechnology, Quality and Food Safety. She has graduated from the Kazakh State National University of Al-Farabi. Presently she is pursuing her Master’s degree at the Kazakh Engineering and Technological University. Her area of interests is a probiotics for food and animals.

The most important indicators of bakery products are their acidity which is created as a result of activity of lactic acid bacteria (LAB). They possess the leading role in fermentation of rye and wheaten semi-finished products. We developed consortium of LAB and yeast-Lactobacillus paracasei 2, Lactobacillus pontis 67, Pediococcus acidilactici P1-6, Saccharomyces cerevisiae LV used for preparation of starters for rye bread. For white bread the consortium of mesophilic LAB of Lactobacillus brevis-67, Lactobacillus casei var аlactosus-22, Lactobacillus fermentum-104, Lactobacillus plantarum-2 preventing a bread disease of “a potato illness”. New consortiums of LAB and yeast contain the safe, biocompatible, probiotic microorganisms at joint cultivation having a high total titer of living cells providing its stability at long storage and browning. These LAB produce low-molecular peptides with a molecular weight within 3500-4500 Da which suppress reproduction dispute of Bacillus subtilis that prevents a bread disease of “a potato illness”. Besides, P. acidilactici suppresses development of one of the mold mushrooms of Penicillium commune, most widespread in bakeries. It is established that application fermented by the mentioned LAB of products promoted suppression of growth of microscopic mushrooms and aerobic spore for mating bacteria from several tens to several thousand times in a storage time of wheaten products within 5 days at 18-23o C. When using of the offered starters in processes of rye and white bread fermentation, the received product has the improved flavoring, organoleptic and rheological properties contains live probiotic microorganisms in a high titer (108 CFU/g) long time.

Ning Xiao has completed her BA and MENG degrees in Chemical Engineering at the University of Cambridge at 2011. Then she worked on algae biodiesel project in a boutique engineering consultancy firm for a year before she started her PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2012. She also has some experience on holding conference on biofuels.

There is exceptional interest in biofuels as alternative fuel in particular biologically produced hydrogen. Rhodopseudomonas palustris, a purple non-sulphur bacterium is known to produce good yields of hydrogen during anaerobic, photoheterotrophic growth. It could act as a source for growth associated hydrogen production and as the biocatalyst for non-growth associated hydrogen production. In this study, we presented examples of both processes. We qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed and compared the hydrogen production performance for growth associated and non-growth associated hydrogen production. The hydrogen production rate and light conversion efficiency for the non-growth associated hydrogen production were about 24% higher than those for the growth associated hydrogen production. The glycerol conversion for both processes were similar and above 90%. However there was a significant difference in hydrogen selectivity for growth associated hydrogen production, the hydrogen selectivity was found to be 8.0±0.4% while for non-growth associated hydrogen production it was 77.7±2.8%. Hence the glycerol to hydrogen yield for the non-growth associated hydrogen production was around 10 times of that for the growth associated hydrogen production. Through these analyses, we aimed to understand the mechanism of hydrogen production under both conditions and offer recommendations for industrial application

Margarita Aguilera is Associate Professor at the Department of Microbiology of the University of Granada (Spain), where she completed her PhD in 2002 and performed Postdoctoral studies within European Project Frame and further collaborations at the Joint Research Center-EC on Biotechnology Unit. She has published 40 manuscripts in recognised journals and has been serving as an Editorial Board Member of Food, Microbiology and Biotechnology journals. She is currently Seconded National Expert at the European Food Safety Authority.

Innovation is one of the pillars for the development of food risk assessment programmes that lead to the fundamental role for health consumer’s protection. In line with this objective, it would be worth to include evolving high-throughput technologies and improved knowledge of applications of genomics, metagenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, phenomics and, recently, toxicogenomics, integromics and interactomics scientific tools and their possible use for validating models for food risk assessment. An example of the Omics applications (expertise for the future) has been done on the food field of probiotics that are described as beneficial microorganisms used for improving human health. However, the evaluation of the real effects and risk of the probiotic formulations is extremely complicated and complex as well the specific legislative frame. An overview of probiotics will be provided explaining the basis of the interactions and their human effects through compilation of data obtained by Omics technologies results. These tools have shown to have an add value compared to the conventional tools, moreover they have allowed to have more information for unintended and/or potentially adverse effects. The proper implementation of the Omics technologies in risk assessment will constitute a global positive output.

Kirsty Lewis completed her Bachelor’s degree from Abertay University Dundee, where she gained first-class honors in Applied Biomedical Science. During her degree, she published a paper in a scientific journal, and is currently working as a Research Assistant within Professor Nikolai Zhelev’s research group at Abertay University. Her main interests surround the use of stem cells in drug discovery and development in the field of cardiology.

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a prevalent form of cardiovascular disease (CVD) characterized by enlargement of the myocardium of the heart as a result of increased cardio-myocyte cell volume. This elevation in cellular volume caused by hypertrophic stimuli, results in thickening of the ventricular walls, which can proceed to impairment of cardiac contractility and functionality, and ultimately lead to sudden cardiac arrest. Presently, the disease is reported to cause 36% of CVD-related deaths in competitive athletes and a curative pharmacological treatment is yet to be established. Recent research has identified involvement of the cyclin-dependent kinase 9 (CDK9)-related pathway as a fundamental factor in the induction of HCM. Through the hormonal induction of HCM within novel ‘mini-heart’ organ models consisting of human embryonic stem-cell (hESC)-derived cardiomyocytes, the effectiveness of the novel anti-cancer drug, CYC202, at preventing the onset of human HCM was evaluated. Our data has demonstrated that CYC202, a CDK9-inhibiting compound, targets the effects of Ang II and ET-1 stimulated hypertrophic growth in hESC-cardiomyocytes. The compound was successful in preventing of the onset of hypertrophic growth through inactivation of CDK9. The ‘mini-heart’ cell-based assay holds great promise in bringing new and effective cardiovascular treatments to the market through providing an improved testing platform for pre-clinical drug screening, which is scalable, reproducible and from an inexhaustible source. Further research into the pharmacokinetics of CYC202 is required before potentially progressing to phase-I clinical trials and the development of a medical therapeutic for HCM in patients at high risk of developing the disease.