User:Bruno de Oliveira

alt text

Bruno Francesco Rodrigues de Oliveira holds both a B.Sc. in Biomedical Sciences and an M.Sc. in Biology of Host-Parasite Interaction from the Federal University of Goiás (UFG). After a temporary lectureship in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UFG, Bruno went to Rio de Janeiro to pursue a Ph.D. in Sciences (Microbiology) under the supervision of Prof Marinella Laport at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, in a project focusing on sponge microbiology. Part of his PhD project was conducted at the School of Microbiology at University College Cork (UCC), where he delved into the agarolytic potential of a sponge-associated pseudoalteromonad, both at the genomic and physiological levels. In his PhD thesis, he fully elucidated the catabolic pathways underlying the complete utilisation of agarose (GH16, GH50, GH117) and alginate (PL6 and PL7) in this sponge microbial symbiont, and discovered clues to its potential acquisition via horizontal gene transfer from related marine Gammaproteobacteria. One of the agarases discovered during his PhD was later expressed and characterised, leading to a patent being deposited with the Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property. Following a one-year postdoctoral fellowship in Applied Microbiology at UFRJ, Bruno was appointed as Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Parasitology at the Fluminense Federal University (UFF). At UFF, he is the founder and Principal Investigator of the Laboratory of Marine Bacteriomes (BacMar), in which the main research program explores marine host-associated microbiomes from both ecological and biotechnological perspectives. In particular, Bruno has a special interest in CAZyme families involved in the degradation and turnover of macroalgal biomass, such as agarases, carrageenanses, alginate lyases, ulvan lyases and fucanases. For this research line, his lab integrates classical microbial isolation and cultivation from marine environments and hosts, genomic sequencing and analysis of bacterial degraders, molecular cloning and heterologous expression of identified marine polysaccharide-degrading enzymes, followed by their biochemical characterisation and in vitro application across a myriad of industrial scenarios.

---

Selected publications

1. de Oliveira BFR, Carr CM, Dobson ADW, and Laport MS. (2020). Harnessing the sponge microbiome for industrial biocatalysts. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2020;104(19):8131-8154. DOI:10.1007/s00253-020-10817-3 |
2. de Oliveira BFR, Lopes IR, Canellas ALB, Muricy G, Jackson SA, Dobson ADW, and Laport MS. (2021). Genomic and in silico protein structural analyses provide insights into marine polysaccharide-degrading enzymes in the sponge-derived Pseudoalteromonas sp. PA2MD11. Int J Biol Macromol. 2021;191:973-995. DOI:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2021.09.076 |
3. de Oliveira TS, de Oliveira BFR, de Andrade FCC, Guimarães CR, de Godoy MG, and Laport MS. (2022). Homoscleromorpha-derived Bacillus spp. as potential sources of biotechnologically-relevant hydrolases and biosurfactants. World J Microbiol Biotechnol. 2022;38(10):169. DOI:10.1007/s11274-022-03358-6 |
4. Canellas ALB, Dias GR, Lopes IR, Freitas-Silva J, Dobson ADW, Laport MS, and de Oliveira BFR. (2025). Marine microbial enzymes as potential antibiofilm agents: expanding the arsenal of bioactive agents targeting biofilm-forming microorganisms. Crit Rev Microbiol. 2025;51(6):1346-1363. DOI:10.1080/1040841X.2025.2510247 |
5. Carr CM, Göttsch F, de Oliveira BFR, Murcia PAS, Jackson SA, Wei R, Clarke DJ, Bornscheuer UT, and Dobson ADW. (2024). Identification and expression of MarCE, a marine carboxylesterase with synthetic ester-degrading activity. Microb Biotechnol. 2024;17(6):e14479. DOI:10.1111/1751-7915.14479 |