Catholic University of Louvain (UCL)

The core expertise of the Unit of Bioengineering at UCL is Bioprocess Engineering (cellular and cell-free biocatalyst development and implementation, bioreactor design and scale-up) and Environmental Biotechnology (biodegradation, bioremediation, molecular microbial ecology). It encompasses modern laboratory space and a pilot plant, with extensive analytical and molecular biology facilities plus different bioreactors and downstream processing equipment for the cultivation and harvesting of bacteria, fungi, algae and animal cells.
Main tasks in the project

  • Microbial and additive formulations for enhanced biodegradation (WP4)
  • Applying these formulations into integrated approaches for combatting oil spills (WP6)
Spiros N. Agathos - Contact this person by email

Prof. Dr. Spiros N. Agathos is professor and head of the Laboratory of Bioengineering at the Earth & Life Institute of UCL. He has a Ph.D. in biochemical engineering from MIT (U.S.A.) and is active in both environmental and synthetic biotechnology. He is Vice-Chair of the Section Environmental Biotechnology of the European Federation of Biotechnology and member of the Environmental Group of the EU-US Task Force on Biotechnology Research. He serves on the Editorial Boards of several journals and is the author or co-author of over 165 peer-reviewed articles or book chapters.

Katholiki Skopelitou - Contact this person by email

Dr. Katholiki Skopelitou is the principal post-doctoral researcher working in the Kill•Spill project at the Earth & Life Institute of UCL in Belgium. With a PhD in Biotechnology (employing enzyme technology for environmental biodegradation purposes) and a post-doctoral appointment in the Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology (ACIB-Vienna, Austria) where her work has focused on Systems Biology and Microbial Cell Engineering, she has approached the field of microbial catalysis of environmental pollutants from various perspectives. Her current work in the Kill•Spill project, explores the biodegradation potential of fungi as well as of fungal-bacterial consortia  in oil-spill bioremediation.