Ireland’s reputation as an emerging centre of excellence in marine science has been validated by the announcement September 14th of over €23 million in European funding for some 30 Irish marine research groups, including around 20 SMEs engaged in cutting edge work in such vital areas as ocean energy, sustainable fisheries, biotechnology, and marine environmental monitoring.
This funding from the European Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) will support an estimated 130 young researchers.
The Seaweed Downstream Research Centre (SDRC) involves several local universities and government agencies and has set itself the aim of producing 10 food and 10 non-food products. It is lead by the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).
The SDRC has identified 11 varieties of seaweed around Malaysia’s lengthy coastline with the exploration of antioxidant potential seen as one of the major project’s major goals.
They will also look at how seaweed extracts can be used in meat products, noodles and confectionery. Non-food uses will include bio-plastic, bio-sensors and bio-fertilizers.
Bigelow Laboratory began its long awaited expansion by breaking ground on The Bigelow Center for Blue Biotechnology in East Boothbay recently.
The 64-acre ocean research and education campus will include laboratory spaces for molecular biology, single cell genomics, and a center for marine phytoplankon collection, the crucial component of the plankton community directly responsible for much of the Earth’s oxygen in the atmosphere.
The Center for Marine Science at the University of North Carolina Wilmington is offering two exceptional research fellowships in marine biotechnology. Candidates must have a PhD in a biotechnology-related area and are expected to conduct research in marine science laboratories at the University while pursuing a professional MBA degree in the University’s Cameron School of Business.
The goal of this 35 month program is to produce individuals with a solid science background as well as the business skills needed to prosper in a modern competitive business environment. Students in the MBA portion of the program will master the core functions of business, develop analytical and quantitative business skills, and study current and future business issues through real world experiences with regional companies involved in marine biotechnology.
State-owned utility AEE and the firm Bio-Lipidos announced plans to build a plant in northern Puerto Rico that will produce a pure fuel based on tropical marine micro-algae.
AEE’s executive director, Miguel Cordero, told a press conference that investment totaling $10 million will be needed to get the plant in operation, adding that the initiative will be a “future solution” for Puerto Rico.
Cordero said the plant will be built in a roughly 8-million-square-meter (86-million-square-foot) area in Dorado and Toa Baja, towns on the island’s north coast.
He added that plans are to produce close to 6 million liters (1.6 million gallons) of vegetable oil during the first year of operation, while the dry bodies of the micro-algae will be used as animal feed as part of a project to farm organic tilapia and shrimp.
Cyanotech announces the publication of a peer-reviewed publication which examines the growing body of evidence for Spirulina’s benefits in the areas of:
The wealth of research for Spirulina in these four vital areas is reaching critical mass, and the Cyanotech personnel who authored this paper make a strong case for the use of Spirulina to benefit people concerned with these key health issues. This article, “Potential Health Benefits of Spirulina Microalgae” (Capelli and Cysewski, 2010), which appeared in the last issue of NutraFoods is available as a PDF and at the company’s website www.cyanotech.com
Collaboration on research between krill player Aker BioMarine and Norwegian food supplement manufacturer Sana Pharma could boost efforts to achieve positive opinions on health claims from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
The deal between the two companies has resulted in the addition of Aker’s SuperBa omega-3 krill oil to an existing range of Sana Pharma’s food supplements – VitaePro, which also includes ingredients such as astaxanthin, lutein, zeaxanthin and Vitamins C, D and E.
The reformulated product has already been debuted in northern European countries.
Aurora Algae, formerly Aurora Biofuels, introduced the industry’s first photosynthetic algae-based platform for the production of sustainable, premium products in the pharmaceutical, nutritional supplement, aquaculture and fuels markets.
The announcement officially marks Aurora Algae’s transition from pilot technology development into full-scale commercialization of the Company’s proprietary algae products, including high concentration eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA Omega-3 fatty acids), high-density proteins, fish meal and renewable fuels.
Norwegian marine biotechnology company Aqua Bio Technology ASA (ABT) has strengthened its organization, and has secured valuable competence for the company’s further growth and commercial development with the appointment of Arvid Lindberg as the new CEO, and Fanny Fagot-Coste as the Head of sales and Product Development.
Arvid Lindberg (37) takes the role as ABT’s new CEO. He holds a degree in economics from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration in Bergen and comes from the position as Business Unit Director in Roche.
On the sales and product development side, the company has hired Fanny Fagot-Coste (31) as the new Sales Manager Asia /Head of Product Development. Fanny is French and has a double Masters degree in Bioengineering and Cosmetology (Honours) from Universite de Technologie de Compiegne (UTC) and Universite Paris XI, Faculty of Pharmacy.
The workshop will focus on day 1″Research Collaboration & Network Building for Commercialization – examples in Marine Technologies and Bio-Sciences”: Researchers and entrepreneurs from the UTexas system, Fraunhofer, Portuguese universities and R&D institutes and companies will share their experiences on research collaboration and commercialisation, ranging from robotics to marine biotechnology. The summary of the presentations are available on the UTEN site.
On day 2 the 2 UTEN workshop will focus on “Hands-on Training: Research contracts and technology commercialization”, namely negotiation of research and commercialization contracts. The case studies will allow interactive learning and they will be based on technologies from marine science, agriculture and life science.
 |
  |
 |
 |
