School of Infection & Immunity

Dr Laura Sabio Rodriguez

  • Research Associate (Biomedical Engineering)
  • Location: SGDB Common Room

Title: Probiotic-based Engineered Living Materials with inducible antioxidant properties

Synopsis: 

Genetically Engineered Microbes (GEMs) are emerging as responsive cell factories that can produce bioactive compounds in situ. In this regard, the probiotic Lactococcus lactis is a promising food-grade expression platform, Generally Recognized as Safe by the FDA. It has been genetically modified within the last 35 years for therapeutic purposes, holding a huge potential to produce bioactive compounds such as lycopene -the carotenoid with the highest antioxidant activity. Since the extraction of carotenoids from vegetables is laborious, expensive, and lead to degradation, the use of GEMs for in situ production of these compounds arises as a more efficient and sustainable synthesis approach.

GEMs can be combined with matrices to support cell functions while providing advanced functionalities for a specific application. This combination has given rise to the emerging field of Engineered Living Materials (ELMs). Inducible ELMs combining GEMs, able to produce carotenoids in situ, with skin suitable matrices offers significant potential for treating skin conditions that involve inflammatory processes -such as psoriasis and acne.

In this work, we aim to develop an ELM to treat and protect against oxidative stress by combining bacterial cellulose -a polymer with interesting mechanical properties and biocompatibility- and an engineered L. lactis able to produce and deliver lycopene to mammalian cells. 

Bio: 

Laura Sabio completed her BSc in Biochemistry and obtained her Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Granada (Spain) in 2022, where she worked on biomaterial development using probiotics, collagen and bacterial cellulose. After a short postdoctoral period, she moved to the UK and joined the Centre for the Cellular Microenvironment at the University of Glasgow, where she was awarded an MSCA-PF fellowship under the supervision of Manuel Salmeron-Sanchez to develop probiotic-based Engineered Living Materials with biomedical applications. After finishing the MSCA, she joined PRISM-LT and she is collaborating with Dave Mark using his minicells. She was awarded early this year a JSPS postdoctoral fellowship to join Professor Shohei Saito’s group in the Department of Organic Chemistry, at Osaka University (Japan). In addition to her interest in the development and characterization of biomaterials and bacteria-cell interactions, she is highly interested in scientific illustration, which motivated her to organise the 1st Workshop on Scientific Illustration in the ARC (November 2025).

 

First published: 14 August 2026

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