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OMICS International is organizing World Congress on Beneficial Microbes: Food, Pharma, Aqua & Beverages Industry on August, 25-27, 2015 Valencia, Spain. The theme of the conference is “Exploiting the power of Microbes for the Industrial Development”. This congress is expecting audience such as experts from food microbiology, aquaculture microbiology, probiotics, and experts from academics as well as industrial microbiology.

OMICS International Organizes 300 Conferences every year across USA, Europe & Asia with support from 1000 more scientific societies and Publishes 400 Open access journals which contains over 30000 eminent personalities, reputed scientists as editorial board members, where knowledge transfer takes place through debates, round table discussions, poster presentations, workshops, symposia and exhibitions. OMICS International is an integration of Open Access publications and worldwide International Scientific conferences and events. Established in the year 2007 with the only aim of creating the knowledge on Science and technology.  OMICS Journals has 21 days rapid review method involving 30,000 editorial team members with 3 Million readers.

International symposium on Bacteriophages - beneficial microbes at their best

Organizer:
Alexander Sulakvelidze,Vice-President, Research and Development,Chief Scientist,Intralytix, Inc., USA 

Valencia is the third largest city in the Spain. Valencia’s port is the biggest on the Mediterranean western coast. And due to its location western coast makes it a big contributor in the Spanish aquaculture market. There is huge amount of micro flora on the coastal area. Valencia is also major exporter Food and beverages through-out the Spain as well as Europe. There are total 94 aquaculture companies in Spain. And there are 13 major food and beverages companies. Spain is the biggest wine producer in the world. Spain overall produced 50 million hectolitres (6.7 billion bottles) of wine in 2013, a 41 percent surge from 2012. There are 7 major pharmaceutical companies in Spain which are producing microbial pharmaceutical products. There is only one university in Valencia which is conducting research on microbes. Approximately 20000-30000 researchers working in the field of microbiology. There are Total approx. 738 aquaculture companies in Europe. And their total turnover is around 1982.2 million euros. For more Details.

Microbes and Industry

Microbes have been used to produce products for thousands of years. Even in ancient times, vinegar was made by filtering alcohol through wood shavings, allowing microbes growing on the surfaces of the wood pieces to convert alcohol to vinegar. Likewise, the production of wine and beer uses another microbe — yeast — to convert sugars to alcohol. Both of these are early examples of biotechnology — the use of microbes for economic or industrial purposes. This field advanced considerably with the many developments in microbiology, such as the invention of microscope. Once scientists learned about the genetics of microbes, and how their cells produce proteins, microbes could also be altered to function in many new, and useful, ways. This sparked the application of biotechnology to many industries, such as agriculture, energy and medicine. Food safety is a major focus of food microbiology. Pathogenic bacteria, viruses and toxins produced by microorganisms are all possible contaminants of food. However, microorganisms and their products can also be used to combat these pathogenic microbes. Probiotic bacteria, including those that produce bacteriocins, can kill and inhibit pathogens. Alternatively, purified bacteriocins such as nisin can be added directly to food products. Finally, bacteriophages, viruses that only infect bacteria, can be used to kill bacterial pathogens. The industrial microbiology market is large and growing, the second largest diagnostics market after clinical diagnostics in test volume and market value. More than 90,000 industrial plants worldwide conduct close to 2 billion tests each year, which represents a market value of $6.5 billion.

Microbes: Food and Agriculture

Microbial food cultures are live bacteria, yeasts or moulds used in food production. Microbial food cultures carry out the fermentation process in foodstuffs. Microbial food cultures preserve food through formation of inhibitory metabolites such as organic acid (lactic acid, acetic acid, formic acid, propionic acid), ethanol, bacteriocins, etc., often in combination with decrease of water activity (by drying or use of salt. Further, microbial food cultures help to improve food safety through inhibition of pathogensor removing of toxic compounds. Microbial food cultures also improve the nutritional value and organoleptic quality of the food.

The microbial food cultures used in food fermentation can be divided into three major groups: bacteria, yeasts and moulds.

Microbes in Medicine

Living cells injected with viruses produce viral proteins having a broad spectrum of antiviral action. Interfere on also have a number of other biological effects like inhibition of parasitic infections of rickettsiae, protozoa and bacteria

In the last 150 years, a number of pathogenic microorganisms have been isolated and their control measures have been developed using other microbes or their secretions called antibiotic.

Besides, the microbiology in recent years has been utilized in pollution management, decay and disintegration various types' wastes, treatment of sewage and water supply etc. Still many a good of number for uses of microorganisms are not known to human beings who may be developed in course time.

Genetic Engineering of Microbes

Genetic information in organisms is stored in their DNA. This molecule holds instructions for how the organism looks and functions. DNA is broken into sections called genes, each of which contains the template for a single protein molecule. Proteins serve as building blocks for the cell, and also carry out other activities. By studying microbes, scientists learned how to cut pieces out of a DNA molecule, and move them to another part. This changes how the cell looks or acts. Scientists can also take genes from one organism and insert them into the DNA of another. This gives the organism entirely new abilities.

This type of genetic engineering, the altering of an organism’s genetic information  has enabled scientists to use microbes as tiny living factories. One example of this is the production of insulin. In humans, the pancreas creates a protein called insulin that regulates glucose, sugar, levels in the blood. People with one type of diabetes cannot produce insulin, so they inject it into their blood throughout the day. To produce cheaper insulin, scientists inserted the human gene for insulin into the DNA of a common intestinal bacterium. This change enabled the bacterium to produce a new product human insulin.

Energy & Microbes

During vinegar production with wood chips, bacteria grow on the surface of the wood, forming what is called a biofilm. Bacteria attached to a surface like this can produce many compounds, as well as block the flow of a fluid. The latter behavior has been used to increase the amount of oil extracted from an oil field. Bacteria growing in the wells block areas that are more open. When water is then pumped into the ground, the biofilms drive the water into other areas that still contain oil. This then forces the oil to the surface.

Microbes can also be used to create fuels directly. Certain bacteria ferment glycerol to form ethanol, a biofuel that can be used in automobiles. The glycerol is a by-product of biodiesel production, but it is more valuable if converted to fuel. With genetic engineering, microbes can also be altered to produce fuels that they don’t usually make. One company has modified the DNA of yeast to create biofuel from sugarcane feedstock. The challenge to all of these methods is creating a process that produces fuels more easily and cheaply than conventional methods.

Microbes Food and Safety

Food safety is a major focus of food microbiology. Pathogenic bacteria, viruses and toxins produced by microorganisms are all possible contaminants of food. However, microorganisms and their products can also be used to combat these pathogenic microbes. Probiotic bacteria, including those that produce bacteriocins, can kill and inhibit pathogens. Alternatively, purified bacteriocins such as nisin can be added directly to food products. Finally, bacteriophages, viruses that only infect bacteria, can be used to kill bacterial pathogens. Thorough preparation of food, including proper cooking, eliminates most bacteria and viruses. However, toxins produced by contaminants may not be liable to change to non-toxic forms by heating or cooking the contaminated food.