Rodrigo Costa

associate professor

iBB Group: bsrg

rodrigoscosta@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Expertise: Blue Biotechnology, Host-Microbe Interactions, Metagenomics, Microbiome Engineering, Natural Products

Short Bio:

Rodrigo Costa is an Associate Professor at the Department of Bioengineering of Instituto Superior Técnico, and holds a Ph.D. degree in Life Sciences from the Technical University of Braunschweig. He studies the roles of host-microbe symbioses in natural and fabricated biomes, their relevance to host/ecosystem health, and potential use as renewable sources of novel biotechnologies. Current research projects focus on microbiome engineering approaches to (i) suppress microbial diseases and mitigate climate change stressors in aquaculture and coral reef ecosystems, and (ii) design marine-based bioproducts of application across multiple sectors (e.g., health, environment, food, and feed) to leverage the circular blue bioeconomy.

Research Focus:

I am interested in the roles played by microbiomes in host and ecosystem health, and combine metagenomics and experimental biology to develop biotechnologies from host-microbe symbioses.

PBA – Pacto da Bioeconomia Azul / Blue Bioeconomy Pact (C632741873-00467082),https://inovamar.pt/en/blue-bioeconomy-pact

SymbioReactor – Sustainable production of bioactive metabolites from microbial symbionts of marine sponges and corals (FA_05_2017_032).

Microcontrol – Exploiting the healing capacity of nature´s microbiomes for improved fish larviculture (PTDC/BIA-MIC/31996/2017).

MicroMetaMobil – Harnessing the power of the microbial metamobilome: using marine sponges as models to uncover novel biotechnological appliances from symbiont communities (PTDC/MAR-BIO/1547/2014), https://app.dimensions.ai/details/grant/grant.4681803

Illuminating the metabolism of foundational and elusive microbial symbionts in benthic ecosystems: a cultivation-independent quest for Hahellaceae (Gammaproteobacteria, Oceanospirillales) genomes (EXPL/MAR-EST/1664/2013), https://app.dimensions.ai/details/grant/grant.3534734

Silva, S.G., Homsi, M.N., Keller-Costa, T., Nunes da Rocha, U.*, & Costa, R.* (2023). Natural product biosynthetic potential reflects macroevolutionary diversification within a widely distributed bacterial taxon. mSystems 8 (6). https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/msystems.00643-23

Keller-Costa, T.*, Toscan, R., Kozma, L., Silva, S.G., Gonçalves, J., Lago-Lestón, A., Kyprides, N.C., Nunes da Rocha, U., & Costa, R.* (2022). Metagenomics-resolved genomics provides insights into chitin turnover, metabolic specialization, and niche partitioning in the octocoral microbiome. Microbiome 10, 151. https://microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40168-022-01343-7

Peixoto, R.S., Voolstra, C., Sweet, M., et al. (2022). Harnessing the microbiome to prevent global biodiversity loss. Nature Microbiology 7, 1726-1735 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-022-01173-1

Keller-Costa, T., Lago-Lestón, A., Saraiva, J.P., Toscan, R., Silva, S.G., Gonçalves, J., Cox, C.J., Kyrpides, N., Nunes da Rocha, U. & Costa, R.* Metagenomic insights into the taxonomy, function and dysbiosis of prokaryotic communities in octocorals. Microbiome 9, 72 (2021). http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40168-021-01031-y

Raimundo, I., Silva, R., Meunier, L., Valente, S.M, Lago-Lestón, A., Keller-Costa, T., & Costa, R*. (2021). Functional metagenomics reveals differential chitin degradation and utilization features across free-living and host-associated marine microbiomes. Microbiome 9, 43 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-020-00970-2

https://www.instagram.com/microecoevo/

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Rodrigo Costa