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This year, Kaspar Valgepea received a 2.3 million euro grant from the European Research Council, which his team is using to research and develop bacteria that consume waste gases.
Kaspar Valgepea’s journey from athletics to science
Professor Kaspar Valgepea is studying “gas-eating” bacteria that can be used to produce fuels, chemicals, and other materials.
In his youth, Kaspar Valgepea (40) was a talented athlete, just like his father, high jumper Tarmo Valgepea. After an injury that forced him to retire from sports, Valgepea turned to science, but he finds that the two fields have a lot in common.
“Both in sports and science, determination, courage, hard work, ambition, passion as well as patience and curiosity are important! The key to reaching the top is to be able to see cause and effect relationships and analyse what is happening around you. In both fields, talent only provides prerequisites – achievements still require hard work,” says Valgepea, who has been a professor in the field of gas fermentation since May.
Gas fermentation: turning waste gases into valuable resources
Gas fermentation is essentially fermentation of gaseous nutrients such as carbon dioxide and hydrogen or carbon monoxide as single carbon and/or energy source. So far, this method has been used industrially primarily for the production of ethanol.
“This technology makes it possible to use microbes to produce necessary materials like jet fuel or plastic from carbon-based waste, be it waste gases or gasified municipal solid waste – this would make it doubly useful for us,” explains Valgepea, who received a 2.3 million euro grant from the European Research Council at the beginning of the year.
With the grant’s support, he and his team are researching and developing bacteria that consume waste gases. Among other things, there are plans to describe the metabolism of hundreds of bacterial strains and gather the data into a knowledgebase that would enable faster development of industrial cell factories. A cell factory, in this context, is a genetically engineered bacterium for the production of something useful.
The group is studying the metabolism of acetogen bacteria and is developing a new method for high-throughput genetic modification of bacterial strains to enhance the gas fermentation process.
Valgepea believes that for every applied scientist, the use of research results in real-life is a sign of success and proof that his/her work is actually useful. Protecting the developed methods with patents as well as the internationality of research careers can be of great benefit in finding the necessary funding for research.
The importance of international collaboration and mentorship in science
Valgepea himself has conducted research in the USA, Denmark, Japan and Australia to improve his knowledge. Based on his experience, he confirms that experiencing different work environments and working with new people is educational in every way.
“I would recommend every young scientist to test themselves in different situations,” he says. “Living in different cultural spaces really broadens your horizons, and you get a completely different experience away from home.”
Valgepea has also supervised younger colleagues in their research. He believes that mentoring is also a great way to develop your own knowledge, thinking skills, inventiveness and creativity, and to help become a more successful scientist.
“In order to teach someone to really understand a subject, the teacher himself must master it in detail. And, of course, it is one of the greatest joys in research when your supervised student successfully uses or develops upon what he/she has learned!” he says.
Kaspar Valgepea graduated from Tallinn University of Technology in 2014 with a PhD degree in Chemistry. He has furthered his education at the University of Electro-Communications of Tokyo (2007-2008), the Technical University of Denmark (2010), the US biotechnology company Genomatica (2012-2013) and the University of Queensland (2015-2018).
He has been awarded scholarships and prizes in the National Student Research Competition, has published over 30 scientific articles, and has lectured and mentored/supervised students at several universities. Since May, Kaspar Valgepea has been a professor of gas fermentation at the University of Tartu.
Some interesting facts from and about Kaspar
UT asked the new professor to fill out a questionnaire to help us get to know him better.
Your research in one sentence
Our team is developing a gas fermentation technology that allows us to produce fuels, chemicals and other materials from waste carbon with the help of microbes.
Your topics of interest
Acetogen bacteria used in gas fermentation have been relatively little studied. They are anaerobic organisms that feed on explosive and toxic gases (H2 with CO2 and CO) and grow slowly. Functions of many genes are currently very poorly understood, and this fact holds back the development of cell factories. It is expected that our research will bring the understanding of acetogens to a new level and contribute to the development of novel cell factories.
Your most important discovery
Although bacteria are generally considered primitive, in my opinion they are very smart and clever self-replicating organisms whose metabolism, cellular processes and mechanisms of action we can learn a lot from.
Teachers who inspire you
I have been inspired the most by my first supervisor, Professor Emeritus Raivo Vilu, who taught me to find a solution to every situation, and my postdoctoral supervisor, Professor Esteban Marcellin, whose ability to think outside the box is impressive. I’ve also been indirectly inspired by the Nobel laureate Richard Feynman’s quote, “What I cannot create, I do not understand”.
Something for the body and the mind
I like to spend time with my family in nature or do sports. If I could, I would travel more and explore places further from civilization.
The best way to rest
The most enjoyable ways are by doing sports, reading, listening to music and spending time with friends.
Recommended by me!
Haruki Murakami’s book 1Q84 to read, the movie 180° South to watch, Centre El Muusa’s self-titled album to listen to.
What should we know about gas fermentation?
Combining gas fermentation and some other biotechnological processes with bioengineering makes it possible to produce different compounds using one kind of “hardware” (read: a plant/factory) and different kinds of “software” (read: cell factories).
his article was originally published on the University of Tartu’s newspaper Universitas Tartuensis. Author: Merilyn Merisalu – Executive Editor of Universitas Tartuensis.
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