Leopoldo Naranjo-Briceño, Ph.D.

VOCATION

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Growing up near the Simón Bolivar University (USB) in Caracas, Venezuela, I spent much of my youth exploring their woods with my identical twin brother and friends. My family and I used to visit Bahia de Cata (Edo. Aragua) and my uncle’s farms every summer, who was a successful agronomist engineer. All those adventures in the Caribbean Sea, intricate green mountains and scattered savannas fueled my interest and admiration for nature. When I graduated from high school, I decided to pursue an Agronomy Engineering degree, which was realized between the Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) and the Universidad Nacional Experimental “Francisco de Miranda” (UNEFM) in the enchanted Santa Ana de Coro City, "the root of Venezuela", because was the first city of my country founded in 1527. 

 

SPECIALIZATION

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While studying at the UNEFM, I did several research internships between 1995 and 1998 at the "Soil Ecology" and the "Plant Ecophysiology" Laboratories of the Center for Ecology and Environmental Sciences at the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC) under the scientific direction of the eminences Dra. Gisela Cuenca and Dra. Elizabeth Olivares, respectively. Also, while studying, I was a scholarship student for 5 years assigned to the Plant Ecophysiology Lab at the Research Center in Ecology and Arid Zones (CIEZA-UNEFM) under the incredible scientific direction of my Tutor and "scientific mother", Dra. Míriam Díaz de Arends. In both institutions, I studied the effect of the inoculation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in roots of the xerophytic plant Agave cocui, as well as the incorporation of fermented organic fertilizers type Bocashi (means fermentation in Japanese), to increase the plant productivity in arid and semiarid lands (e.g., Pecaya, Edo Falcón). This succulent plant is ancestrally used to produce a unique spiritual licor named "cocuy de penca", noticeably superior to the tequila liquor produced in Mexico. ​After 333 resilient days of cocuy seedlings sampling with the help of the beautiful community of Pecaya in the mark of my Thesis experimental design, I successfully got my Agronomist Engineering degree in December 1998. I was ready for whatever the future had in store for me. A great contribution to focus on the next challenges of my life was my initiation into the field of meditation.

 

Not even a year had passed, and I was heading toward Spain to continue my studies, this time at the postgraduate level. This journey changed my whole life, and I was accompanied by my beautiful wife, Mónica, and my little daughter, Daniela, who was one year old at the time. An AECID scholarship granted by the Spanish Government (Programa Mutis) gave me the unique opportunity to complete a European Doctoral Program Degree in "Molecular Biology and Biotechnology" at the University of León (UNILEON) under the scientific direction of Dr. Juan Francisco Martín Martín, becoming in one of the last "Mohicans" of the revolutionary scientific group named "Los Penicilinos". Later, I had the opportunity to acquire a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the prestigious Institute of Biotechnology of León (INBIOTEC). This is how my journey as “a pioneer researcher in genetic engineering of filamentous fungi” began; in this case, developing a deep knowledge of the genetic and metabolic engineering of filamentous fungi and discovering new biotechnological compounds with interesting biological activities for human health.

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EXPANSION AND MAKING REALITY THE DREAMS

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In 2005, I returned to Venezuela with Mónica, Daniela and Aitana, who was born in León in 2000, to serve as an Associate Researcher at the Instituto de Estudios Avanzados (IDEA) in Caracas (Venezuela) for more than 10 years. I also assumed the positions of Director of the Energy and Environmental Area and President at IDEA. I am already proud that my incredible R&D team at IDEA was a pioneer in the field of Petroleum Biotechnology and Environmental Biocatalysis and a world reference with a large list of scientific contributions. At international levels, I also become Regional Representative of the Latin American Association of Mycology (ALMIC), Vocal and Vice Gestor of the Iberoamerican Program for Science and Technology (CYTED) for 4 years, and Liaison Officer at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) for 10 consecutive years. In this stage of my life, running in 2012, I found an incredible spiritual expansion when I did the Indian transcendental meditation technique called Vipassana.

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At this stage of my life, in 2017, in the exponential phase of my scientific career and at 48 years old, the difficult political situation in Venezuela forced me to continue my academic/scientific pathway in other unimaginable latitudes. What I didn't know was that life had beautiful things in store for me. After one year of fighting alone in Ecuador, Mónica, Daniela, Aitana, and my dear little daughter Emma, who was born in Caracas in 2013, finally joined me, but this time in the heart of the jungle. Between 2017 and 2022, I deservedly won a merit-based competition and worked as a permanent Professor and Researcher at Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam (it means "jungle" in the Achuar indigenous language), a young and growing University that puts down roots in the Amazon rainforest, where we lived in peace, in real and mystic contact with nature and rainforest spirits. In this “Avatar tree,” I also was the Director of the Microbial Biotechnology Lab, the co-director of the R&D Team on Applied Microbiology (MicApp) of Ikiam, the Principal Director of several interesting R&D Projects, and Tutor of numerous bachelor's degree thesis, harnessing the enormous microbial biodiversity hidden in the Amazone rainforest waiting to be discovered. In this case, my contributions to science and technology were focused mainly on the rational use of microbial and genetic diversity to develop environmentally friendly, high-added-value biotechnological products for sustainable development and conservation of nature.

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MAKING IMPACT TO CHANGE THE WORLD

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At the end of 2019, I had an epic journey to San Francisco, CA (USA), that changed my life. While I was supporting a seed Start-Up at IndieBio SF in Class 9, I had the amazing opportunity to meet with Phil Ross, Co-Founder and CTO at MycoWorks, a Silicon Valley-based pioneering biotechnology company that produces Reishi™, a non-animal, non-plastic option for fine leather using fungal mycelium. At that moment, MycoWorks was seeking leading experts in the field of mushroom science and research (mycology) to create the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) to guide the advancement of MycoWorks' current and future mycelium materials, and they offered me the incredible option to be one of them. The lens of my perception took a very interesting turn when I began to develop a vision without frontiers and a level of awareness of co-inhabiting among two radically different but not mutually exclusive worlds. At one extreme, I was linked to a company established in Silicon Valley, where the technological future of the rest of the world's nations is being frantically built. While at the other extreme, I was living in one of the most pristine and biodiverse regions on planet Earth: the Amazon rainforest.

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In the middle of 2020, I was working very hard to execute my diverse R&D Projects, including those emerging Projects to fight against COVID-19, when I received a surprise message from my friend Dr. Pablo Zamora: Hernán Rebolledo and José Miguel Figueroa, Co-Founders of Spora, inviting me to join Spora as a senior partner and CSO. 

 

But this story is just beginning...