The Villum Experiment Program is all about ideas. Not the conventional ones, but the ideas that may seem unripe, too risky or even naive at first glance. In this program, The Villum Foundation takes a chance in choosing to support ideas that might have all the odds stacked against them but hold great potential if they succeed. Supporting scientific projects early in the explorative phase, The Villum Experiment Program offers up to 2 million Danish kroner grants to selected scientific projects that facilitate unconventional thinking, thereby playing a significant role in fostering potentially groundbreaking research.

Two scientists that have excelled at rethinking standard approaches are Ph.D. and Postdoctoral Researcher at AU FOOD Guillermo Portillo Perez and Tenure Track Assistant Professor at AU FOOD and AIAS-COFUND Fellow Natalia Prieto Vidal. They have both received a Villum Experiment grant of 1.9 million Danish kroner each to further explore their respective innovative projects ‘INFUSE’ and ‘Beta-LPS’.

Guillermo Portillo Perez’s project ‘INFUSE: Insect-based NanoFibers for everyday USE’ is on a mission to see if insects can be turned into materials for textiles or packaging. If successful, the project could lead to the widespread use of insect biomass for creating a variety of entirely new biomaterials. Meanwhile, Natalia Prieto Vidal’s project ‘Beta-LPS: Exploiting marine Betaine lipids to design the future LiPoSomes’ looks into betaine lipids from marine organisms like algae to create super stable and efficient liposomal delivery systems. The goal is to boost food quality and shelf life, making the food system more sustainable. Despite their differences, the projects share a common goal: advancing biomaterials through innovative thinking. But what does it take to develop a groundbreaking idea so good that it secures a Villum Experiment grant?

The visionaries: “I chose food, and I thought it was a waste of time”

Ph.D. and Postdoctoral Researcher at AU FOOD Guillermo Portillo Perez started as a bachelor’s in chemical engineering under warmer skies in Colima, Mexico. “We had to choose a specialization on a topic, right? I chose food, and – at the time – I thought it was a waste of time”, he says with a chuckle. Clueless to the fact that he would later be roaming the halls of AU FOOD with a Villum Experiment grant in his back-pocket, looking into all things insects for his project ‘INFUSE’, Guillermo Portillo Perez moved on to study a master’s in environmental sciences and resource management in Cologne, Germany. Working 4 years as a project engineer and manager at Rain Carbon in Germany, it dawned upon him that he didn’t like working in the industry nearly as much as he enjoyed the research behind it: “I was way too curious for the industry. I wanted to try things that would probably require too much time or money to pursue in an industry job, and I decided to go back to academia instead.” Following up with a move to Montreal, Canada, and a Ph.D. in bioresources engineering from McGill University, Guillermo Portillo Perez got interested in the material sciences, blissfully unaware that it would later influence him to come up with the idea for his project ‘INFUSE’ at AU FOOD.

Tenure Track Assistant Professor at AU FOOD and AIAS-COFUND Fellow Natalia Prieto Vidal was also enjoying sunnier days in Spain as she became a Ph.D. from the University of the Basque Country. After finishing her Ph.D., she moved overseas to Canada to become a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Memorial University of Newfoundland in Corner Brook. Two years later Natalia Prieto Vidal moved to Ontario in Canada to work as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Guelph, where she met now Associate Professor and Sapere Aude Research Leader at AU FOOD, Mario Martinez, who inspired her to make the move to Denmark: “Mario relocated to AU FOOD and opened a new postdoc position, which I thought was a great opportunity,” she says. In October 2021, Natalia Prieto Vidal became an AIAS-COFUND Fellow at Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies at Aarhus University. Since 2023, she has been a Tenure Track Assistant Professor at AU FOOD, who has now turned Villum Experiment grant recipient as well.

Inspired: From kindergarten to Japanese wireweed

The inspiration for the scientists’ respective projects has emerged from two completely different paths. While Natalia Prieto Vidal experienced an inspirational breakthrough while working on a different project at AIAS, the first seeds of an unconventional idea came to Guillermo Portillo Perez as he was talking to a co-worker whilst picking up his daughter at kindergarten.

At AIAS, Natalia Prieto Vidal was working on a project named ‘ALGOOD’, where she was trying to figure out how to valorize the bioactive compounds of ‘Sargassum muticum’, commonly known as ‘Japanese wireweed’, to produce healthy food with a positive ecological impact. Working on the project enabled her to understand the type of lipids found in seaweed and how they could potentially work in other scientific contexts. What especially caught her eye, and what is now the foundation of her Villum Experiment granted project ‘Beta-LPS’, are the betaine lipids that are found in marine organisms. “Betaine lipids are a special type of membrane lipids that help strengthen algae extraplastidial bilayers, making them more resiliant to environmental stressors,” she says. Natalia Prieto Vidal started searching for publications on these kinds of lipids in seaweed, but didn’t find a lot: “I thought okay, nobody has started working on this. Why don’t we go a little deeper and look at what their physical chemical properties are, and how could we possibly use them? It was really a combination of my entire background that brought me to write the proposal for this project,” she says. A seed was sown, and the ‘Beta-LPS’ project slowly started to form.

Meanwhile, Guillermo Portillo Perez was at kindergarten about to pick up his daughter, as he found himself in conversation with a co-worker and father to his daughter’s good friend. Apparently, his co-worker was working with a company that produced a lot of insect-related waste, and he casually suggested that Guillermo Portillo Perez might be able to think of a solution to it. Thinking no more of it, Guillermo Portillo Perez zipped his jacket and escorted his daughter back home. But then: “I got curious. I investigated it and came up with a great idea. But, as it often happens to us in research, somebody had already thought of that idea a couple of years ago,” he says as he exhales a sigh served with a warm smile. “Luckily for me, it was only a few years ago. So, I thought maybe I can figure out the next interesting step and combine what I’ve been thinking with what’s been done so far. I tried to think of it in a different way, and that’s what really got me started.”

Achieving goals through nature-inspired insights and innovative methods

Talking about his project ‘INFUSE’ with enthusiasm, Guillermo Portillo Perez clearly states what the main goal of the project is as of right now: “Try to develop a method that can preserve the structure and interactions that are already in the exoskeletons of insects, but also reshape them in a way that creates a similar, new biomaterial.” But to reach the main goal, there is one pre-step to consider and overcome first: “How can we modify this in the right way? Because when we change the structure, even if it is ever so slightly, we change both its physical and chemical properties,” he says.

For Natalia Prieto Vidal, taking a close look at what nature is already doing will be a vital part of reaching the main goals for her project ‘Beta-LPS’: “This project deals with the unorthodox idea that by mimicking macroalgae (seaweed) adaptation to the environmental stressors, we can produce very resistant liposomes,” she says. To understand how to mimic it perfectly, Natalia Prieto Vidal draws knowledge and insights from nature: “We must look to nature and ask: What are the adaptive responses of macroalgae to environmental stressors? We must learn from it, so that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel again,” she says with a firm smile before adding: “Let’s have a look at what the cells are already doing in nature and try to mimic them.” If successful, the outcomes of ‘Beta-LPS’ could potentially be used in a wide range of fields: “It’s not only applicable for food science. It can be used as part of a bio-active delivery system, but it can also be used in biomedicine, pharma or even packaging. So, when I wrote this proposal, I wasn’t focused on only food science. My main goal was to investigate what these lipids in seaweed are and figure out what we can do with them in lots of different aspects,” she says with equal shares of hopefulness and passion in her voice.

Navigating bumpy roads in the face of challenges and mishaps

Reaching the main goals in projects rooted in unconventional thinking does, however, not come without its own extraordinary challenges. For Guillermo Portillo Perez, the main challenge for his project ‘INFUSE’ will be to analyze it in the right way: “The more successful we are in making a resistant material, the harder it is to submit it to the kind of analysis that we need. We tend to rely on analysis in soluble state but the more successful we are, the less we will be able to use established methods without disrupting the new structures. This will require us to develop new non-destructive techniques to study our materials,” he says. The solution to the challenge will revolve around finding a new method to analyze and help determine how successful they are that is not only based on circumstantial evidence.

For Natalia Prieto Vidal and her project ‘Beta-LPS’, the main challenges take on a slightly different character. “I think the main challenge is going to be the isolation and separation of the betaine lipids from the rest of the lipids,” she says. “Another problem that can arise is that the yield is very low.” In the context of liposome production, ‘yield’ refers to the amount of betaine lipids successfully isolated. “If the yield is very low, it means that not many liposomes can be generated or produced, which can affect the feasibility of producing the next generation of liposomes, decreasing it significantly,” she says with a concerned look on her face, but with a very solution-oriented tone in her voice. Although the initial plan is to work with seaweeds, she highlights that microalgae are an alternative and sustainable source of betaine lipids too: “Unlike seaweeds, the growing conditions for microalgae can be fully controlled. By placing microalgae under phosphorus-starvation conditions, we can encourage them to produce more betaine lipids, increasing the overall yield,” she says.

Needless to say, both projects stand to face mishaps and challenges as they are supported by The Villum Experiment Program in their exploratory phase. But with great risk comes great reward, and if successful, the projects have tremendous potential to change the way we think about biomaterials and could potentially play a huge role in advancing them, although in two completely different ways.

From sustainable packaging to airplanes and ocean health

The future potential applications of their research findings span a broad range of fields. For Guillermo Portillo Perez’s project ‘INFUSE’, developing more sustainable packaging that is both rigid and biodegradable is on top of the list: “It’s where its application has the biggest impact, because there’s lots of plastic waste. The material we’ll end up with in this project will be biodegradable, hopefully also food safe, and it might even have some antimicrobial antioxidant properties,” he says. “But if I’m allowed to dream, right? I would see it as a form of biodegradable carbon fiber analog, where we could see it in bicycle frames or cars or, who knows, even small airplanes perhaps,” he adds with a light, warm laugh. His hope is that they are successful in developing a range of different materials with varying degrees of permeability, toughness, and elasticity that can ultimately reduce the amount of non-biodegradable waste in the world.

For Natalia Prieto Vidal’s project ‘Beta-LPS’, enhancing food quality and shelf-life to foster a more sustainable food system is the ultimate application of her research: “Marine macroalgae (seaweed) are a renewable and eco-friendly resource of raw biomaterials (e.g. betaine lipids) with a low-carbon footprint and positive impact on ocean’s health and biodiversity,” she says. “They represent a sustainable and resilient bioresource with untapped opportunities for innovation in a broad range of fields – including food science.”

As I ask both scientists what advice they would give to young scientists who might be interested in pursuing these unconventional research paths themselves, the answer is clear: Don’t be afraid of thinking outside the box. “It might be difficult in the beginning, and you might think ‘is this too risky? or not risky enough?’, but you’ll always be in this line of uncertainty – so just start writing a proposal now,” Natalia Prieto Vidal says with a warm smile. “That’s the fun part about something like the Villum Experiment Program, it allows you to play a little bit! Here, you can be a little riskier and give yourself room to explore,” she adds. Guillermo Portillo Perez agrees: “Don’t be afraid of crazy ideas. Things can be done! You just have to figure out how – and this is the fun part of being a researcher and scientist; figuring out how things can be done and finding the courage and curiosity to try to do them.”

________________________________________________________________________

Contact

Guillermo Portillo Perez
Ph.D. and Postdoctoral Researcher at The Department of Food Science at Aarhus University
E-mail: gportillo@food.au.dk
Tel: +45 93 52 24 81
 

Natalia Prieto Vidal
Tenure Track Assistant Professor at The Department of Food Science at Aarhus University & AIAS-COFUND Fellow at Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies at Aarhus University
E-mail: npv@food.au.dk
Tel: +45 52 72 47 42
 

Kimie Kongsøre
Journalist and Science Communicator
Department of Food Science at Aarhus University
E-mail: kiko@food.au.dk
Tel: +45 20 84 43 63
 

For more information about The Villum Experiment Program, please visit: https://villumfonden.dk/en/group/grantsubarea/villum-experiment