New Blue Revolution through a pioneering pathogen-trapping technology based on bioselective hydrogel-forming proteins

Aquaculture is a key player to ensure future food and nutrition security. However, intensive farming models are leading to a dramatic increase in infection outbreaks that drastically impact fish health, food production, the environment and this industry's bottom line. Current strategies to control and prevent infections in intensive aquaculture (mainly vaccines and antibiotics) have important drawbacks, which pose a great challenge to the future sustainability of global fish production. Here, we propose to transform the aquaculture future through a paradigm change in infectious-disease management practices by providing industry with a pioneering pathogen-trapping technology, PathoGelTrap, able to target and remove specific pathogens directly from water. Going way beyond the state of the art, we will use the current knowledge on self-assembling properties of the Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation proteins (LLPS) and affibodies (AFB) to rationally design a chimeric biomimetic material (LLPS-AFB chimera) that will efficiently recognize and trap fish pathogens (both viruses and bacteria) directly in the water and inactivate them. Thanks to the versatility offered by LLPS proteins, we propose to provide the industry with two different solutions: i) PathoGelTrap Liquid (only for closed fish farms): here the LLPS-AFB monomeric protein acts as a flocculant agent to be added in situ, i.e. directly into the fish-farm water. The protein will bind the targeted pathogens in the water and later self-assemble into liquid droplets that will evolve into hydrogels, which will drag in turn the pathogen to the bottom; ii) PathoGelTrap Filter: here we will cast a customized LLPS-AFB hydrogel to be used as a preformed filter that will trap the pathogens as they pass through the regular aquaculture filtration systems. This proposal represents a significant advance in biomaterial engineering opening the door for a revolutionary approach for infectious disease control in Aquaculture.