Javier Méndez, ICMM-CSIC scientist who is going to Antarctica: "We have managed to see the viruses and bacteria that others study"

Almost by chance, the researcher has become involved in an exciting project that takes him to the southernmost point of the planet.

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Scientist at the Institute of Materials Science of Madrid (ICMM), CSIC, Javier Méndez has lately been the protagonist in almost every conversation within the centre. Already known for his adventurous spirit, this time he will embark on the Spanish Navy ship Hespérides to go to Antarctica as part of the MicroAirPolar project, led by the Autonomous University of Madrid.

On December 30, he leaves Madrid for Ushuaia, in southern Argentina. He will spend the end of the year there and on January 3 he will travel to Antarctica on a journey that will last between five and six days. Then he will spend three weeks in the Antarctic summer (with an average temperature of five degrees below zero) and will return to Spain on February 14. In between, he has an exciting project that he tells us about in this interview.

What is MicroAirPolar?

It is a project that has been going on for some time, very interdisciplinary, in which a wide variety of people work. In principle, biologists are interested in microorganisms in Antarctica, but also mathematicians, meteorologists, engineers, and computer scientists... They have been going to Antarctica for a long time.

Is each researcher going to do their job or is it a joint effort?

It is joint work and very varied because, on the one hand, they are collecting microorganisms that are there but they also want to understand how they get there. It is believed that they arrive by air, by air currents. They have an idea of ​​what are the mechanisms of air transport of organisms from the moment they rise from the ground in a place where there are microorganisms and how they are deposited in Antarctica, how they stay alive, and how water in the atmosphere interferes...

It is a UAM project

There are many people from the UAM, yes, but also from other organizations such as the AEMET, universities in Chile, Argentina, the Complutense of Madrid... I am a member of the CSIC.

What is your function?

I do microscopies. The interest of my participation is to be able to show what those microorganisms are like from the samples that are collected there. I've been collaborating for a little over a year. I have measured samples collected in Antarctica in other campaigns with AFM and I have been able to see bacteria and viruses.

How is work?
The work to be carried out there will be a collection of air samples. For this, what is used is a collector, a kind of aluminum tube through which air is passed and which has Vaseline in the center so that microorganisms are collected. We take several collectors: one we hang from a hot air balloon, 500 meters high; others we put in a tower at different heights (one, three, nine meters...), to see differences. These collectors are tubes with a fan in front and behind that circulate the air.

Now with a colleague (Jorge Garcia) from the Micro and Nanotechnology Institute, I am doing calculations of how the air goes through these tubes. It's very interesting. Also to help how is the process and what are the speeds that we have to put on the fan. We are even considering proposing that they change the way samples are collected.

What would that change be like?

Right now the tube is circular and the piece where the microorganisms are collected is part of the tube. It might be better if it had some perpendicular plane because right now it's a ring with Vaseline on the inside. In the results of the simulations we see that the pressure exerted by the walls is small, but if you place a narrowing right there it will go faster and Vaseline can be applied to the perpendicular wall to collect the samples. The problem is that everything is already shipped, but we can make prototypes and tests for future campaigns.

I understand that the expedition is the work of collecting samples, but the study is done with the machinery that we have in Spain

That's it. Until now, what has been done is genetic sequencing, something similar to a PCR, where they try to identify families of genes, that is, certain stretches of genes. In this genetic comparison, they find similarities with microorganisms here and in other parts of the world. They find that there is a globalization of microorganisms. That is one of the interesting results. In large animals we know that there are differences between one continent and another, there has been a different evolution from one place to another. However, in microorganisms no. And it's a bit because of that contact through the air. That is a very curious thing. And this has implications for other viruses, like COVID.

To explain your work to people with no science background, would you explain what AFM microscopy is?

It is a new type of microscopy, after the electron microscope, and is related to the STM. In these microscopes, the important thing is its tip, which is what is going to be brought closer to a surface to read what that surface is like. The tip is passed following the contours of the surface.

They are not optical, like the ones we studied at school, but rather it is almost like reading braille

It is compared to the finger of a blind person. It is something similar: a tip, a probe, which is passed very close to the surface. In the case of the STM microscope, what is measured is the electrical current that appears between the tip and what you want to see, and in the case of the AFM, the strength of the interactions is measured. But in both cases, it is possible to make a map of what the surface is like.

And this map, what is it for? what do we learn?

These researchers knew that there were microorganisms, viruses... because they do genetic sequencing. But they had never seen them. With my participation, we have managed to see them. We have also seen the quantities that they had been able to measure come out. It's also interesting to see how bacteria clump together in clusters, something they didn't know about. That goes in the direction of being able to see what they were measuring.

Apart from other additional works come out. With project theorists, we are identifying bacteria through images. It is about using neural networks for image recognition: the idea is that with an image we can determine if it is a bacteria or inorganic contamination.

On the personal side, how does a materials scientist get into this?

I came to this accidentally. It's curious. I have a friend who is a sailor, who travels the world by boat. He wanted to go to Antarctica and found out that the permits are given by the Spanish Polar Committee. I was inquiring and asking and I came across Antonio Quesada, who is the president of the Spanish Polar Committee and a biologist who works in Antarctica. By contacting him, I was indirectly involved in this investigation.

Were you the one who realized what you could bring to the project?

I told them that I am a researcher and I do microscopy, I asked them if they were interested and they began to send me samples and they involved me in the project. Now I participate as one of the researchers.

At first you...

I had no intention of going to Antarctica (laughs).

Or maybe work with bacteria

That is, I like biology. In fact, the laboratory where I work was made by Arturo Baró with the idea of ​​doing biophysics. Here lipid measurements were made with AFM, and I had participated in companies in the same direction.

How is the preparation to go to Antarctica?

There we go in the Antarctic summer. We are going to have temperatures of -5 degrees, more tolerable, but we are going to a camp, in tents. It's funny, Antarctica doesn't belong to any country: the Antarctic Treaty slows down land requirements [by some countries] to use Antarctica only for peaceful and scientific purposes. The Antarctic Treaty and the Madrid Protocol establish what can be done and what is prohibited.

For example?
It is forbidden to carry out military tests, it is forbidden to carry Styrofoam, it is forbidden to throw waste, step in many places, or approach animals less than 10 meters...

To protect the area, I understand

Yes. Then there are areas that they want to keep completely virgin and it is completely forbidden to enter them.

How do you organize your trip?

We are going by plane to Ushuaia, in Argentina. There we take the Hespérides ship, which left Cartagena in November with material from our project and others. There it picks us up and takes us to a beach near the camp.

We are going to the same island where the Juan Carlos I Antarctic base is located, Livingston Island, but communication by land is complicated, in that case we would have to walk on top of a glacier. The connection is therefore via boat.

What is the camp like?

We have tents.

On the floor?

Yes Yes. They are on the ground, although they are from high mountains, of course. What they have told me is that there is a lot of mud and there is a lot of thaw, we did not sleep on the ice.
Then there is a slightly different store, triangular: it is the bathroom. It is a seat with a hole and a bag. Because all the waste that we generate we have to take back. We can't leave them there.

All that contaminates

Exactly. For example, the bags we use are made of a material that has been studied. The problem would be carrying polyspan, and other things that can be flown. You can't pee outside, and people can smoke but they can never throw the ashes on the ground, they have to bring an ashtray. Then there are places that cannot be stepped on.

Can you move around the camp?

It is absolutely forbidden to go alone, but we are going to go to different places: there are sea elephant colonies and penguin colonies. They say that sometimes the elephant seals get very close and that a problem could be if that they can crush the tents. There are times when they put the boxes with the material and the elephant seals stand next to it, stuck together, because it shelters them from the wind, and you arrive and you can't do anything. They are not aggressive, but they are very big. There are also leopard seals (endangered) that can attack, but in principle, there is no danger. Of course, you can't block their path between them and the sea, you can't get closer than ten meters...

Are you wanting to go?

Yes Yes. It was accidental, but I really want to.

-- Ángela R. Bonachera. Communication and Outreach Unit--