Prebiotics Research and Technology Group (PRT)

Department of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology

Research and projects

Researchers from our group have vast research experience in:

For past decade, our research group has been particularly focused on utilizing this set of skills and techniques in development of novel enzymatic processes for production of established prebiotics. Recently, with evolution of the prebiotic concept, new frontiers of research are established and, accordingly, three main current research topics of our group are:

Efficient utilization of various enzymatic activities is crucial for development of these novel technologies – for synthesis of prebiotics (FOS and GOS), for obtaining prebiotics by hydrolysis of polysaccharides (XOS and POS), for degrading cell walls in enzyme-aided extraction of prebiotics and for enzymatic modification of extracted active compounds (Scheme).

Additionally, our other skills within field of biochemical engineering will be applied, including membrane separation techniques (ultrafiltration, nanofiltration), fermentation studies with single or mixed cultures of gut and skin microbiota, bioanalytical chemistry and optimization of enzymatic processes using statistically designed experimental plans. 

Group’s projects focused on development of prebiotic technologies:

vision

Our vision is to become an internationally recognized scientific group in research topic of enzymatically derived prebiotics and provide sustainable transfer of scientific findings to prebiotic technologies attractive to industrial partners.

Our ambition is to establish the Centre of Scientific Excellence for Prebiotics at FTM, which will be stimulated by transfer of knowledge within TwinPrebioEnz project that will strengthen our research group with acquired expertise in analysis of gut and skin microbiota and protein engineering.

Establishment of the Centre will enable researchers from FTM to evaluate the effect of various potential prebiotic products on skin or gut microbiota and offer these high-quality services to business community, together with research and innovation services in development of prebiotic-containing food and cosmetic products.

Contact

Prof. dr. Dejan Bezbradica, e-mail: dbez@tmf.bg.ac.rs