Together the companies hope to identify natural marine ingredients that could replace the petroleum-based components used extensively within the skincare market.

Scientists at Aquapharm believe marine microbes are the key to finding the bio-active ingredients of the future, and have developed specialist fermentation processes to source and produce such extracts.

Now they will undertake a development program in conjunction with ABT, sharing their expertise in a bid to prove these extracts can be produced with minimal environmental impact – and successfully commercialized for the personal care market.

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Aquapharm specialises in the discovery, isolation and development of novel functional active ingredients, sustainably harvested from marine micro-organisms for potential use in a wide range of commercial sectors.

Meanwhile not-for-profit organisation CABI – which is highly respected for its cutting-edge research – applies scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture and the environment, with a focus on scientific publishing, development and research, and microbial services.

The agreement sets out how Aquapharm and CABI will share know-how and resources, paving the way for the future commercialisation of a variety of microbial strains/extracts.

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Bertrand Lehuu, who has almost 30 years’ experience in senior roles in many of Europe’s biggest pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, joins Aquapharm as Senior Vice President (SVP) -Pharma Business.

Bertrand is well known as a bio-pharmaceutical deal-maker and will be responsible for business development in this field for Aquapharm.

After gaining his Doctorate of Pharmacology from Paris University, Bertrand has built his career as a Business Development specialist in the Pasteur Institute, Flamel Technologies, F-Hoffmann La Roche Ltd., Basilea, Neuro3d, BioXell and most recently PharmaSwiss.

His new role at Aquapharm marks a return to the cutting-edge of biotechnology in a company focused on discovering and developing new pharmaceutical, personal care and nutritional products from its unique collection of marine micro-organisms.

Bertrand will play a strategic role in the development and future growth of the company which, in the last year alone, has attracted a significant amount of funding and struck several research partnerships.

2010 has seen Aquapharm go from strength-to-strength, securing £4.2 million of funding from existing investors Aescap Venture, Tate & Lyle Ventures, Highlands & Islands Enterprise and NESTA.
Highlighting the diversity and depth of its research, the company has also entered into a collaboration with Albany Molecular Research to identify novel anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory drug-candidates; Dundee University to develop compounds that may help in the fight against Alzheimer’s; and Leatherhead Food Research to identify food preservatives.

Today’s announcement of Aquapharm’s newest recruit is the latest in a series of prominent appointments, latterly that of Mats Pettersson who joined the Board in January this year. In 2010, serial biotech entrepreneur Prof. Simon Best joined the company as CEO, while Dr Tim Morley was named Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) and Aquapharm founder Dr Andrew Mearns Spragg moved to the role of Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
Source: Company release

Pettersson was previously a Senior Vice President at Pharmacia from which he led the spinout of BioVitrum, growing the organisation to become one of Europe’s most successful public biotech companies. His impressive CV also includes seats on the boards of leading pharmaceutical companies such as Lundbeck and biotechs including Ablynx, to-BBB and Photocure.

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Under the terms of this agreement, SAMS will provide Aquapharm with privileged access to the vast array of marine samples that it has collected from diverse marine habitats around the globe. Aquapharm will then apply its extensive culturing and marine fermentation know-how to these samples to capture and harness the full microbial biodiversity that they contain, further expanding the scope of its collection of marine micro-organisms.

Once Aquapharm has cultured and identified the range of novel microbial species present in these samples, it will draw out their unique biochemistry through the application of its suite of screening technologies, including SeaRch™, in some cases activating otherwise inaccessible, dormant biosynthetic pathways to produce a cocktail of chemical diversity that Aquapharm will convert into candidate functional ingredients or pharmaceuticals.

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Aquapharm Biodiscovery believes its substantial collection of marine bacteria and fungi from a variety of diverse sources could offer some solutions. It has teamed up with Leatherhead Food International to develop a source of naturally-derived anti-microbial compounds.

Based at the European Centre for Marine Biotechnology in Oban on Scotland’s West coast, Aquapharm uses it epigenetics platform to expose these microorganisms to stresses that they would not normally be exposed to, which allows conformational changes in the DNA structure and wakes up silent genetic pathways.

In this way the microorganisms can be stimulated to produce novel, biologically active compounds.

AquaPharm is drawn up its shortlist, Leatherhead Food Research – which has experience in the identification, evaluation and application of new preservatives for foods – will screen it against its collection of food spoilage organism to measure the preservative performance.

The results of the collaboration will be made available to industry via Leatherhead’s membership network and an industry partner or partners may further develop and commercialise them.

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Alzheimer’s is a disease marked by the formation of insoluble protein aggregates in the brain with associated progressive degeneration of the neurons. The collaboration is aimed at O-GIcNAcase, a well-documented target for Alzheimer’s, that modulates the solubility of the protein in these aggregates but that has been difficult to target with conventional small-molecule libraries. It therefore forms an ideal opportunity to demonstrate that Aquapharm’s growing collection of novel and diverse marine-derived compounds and scaffolds can modulate a clinically attractive but pharmacologically challenging target for a disease for which new solutions are urgently required.

Aquapharm will be working with Professor Daan van Aalten, Professor of Biological Chemistry at the University, who brings to the collaboration expertise in studying the structural aspects and mechanism of protein-carbohydrate interactions, and applies this knowledge to design molecules that modulate these interactions in biological systems as research tools or leads for the development of chemotherapeutics.

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Under the terms of this agreement, drawing on its substantial experience and expertise from previous screening campaigns with its terrestrial natural products library, AMRI will screen Aquapharm’s library against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria and an undisclosed anti-inflammatory target and will isolate and elucidate the structures of novel hits. Aquapharm retains all rights to compounds resulting from the collaboration.

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Jon Williams joins Aquapharm as business development director with a remit to explore non-pharmaceutical markets for its products in areas such as personal care, food, nutrition and industrial chemistry.

Also signing up at the Oban-based firm is Dr Lloyd Payne who becomes research director.

Payne is being charged with delivering the completion of the world’s largest marine-derived compound library which the company hopes to unveil to the market next year.

Andrew Spragg, chief executive and founder of Aquapharm, said: “Because we have this growing portfolio, we need people with specific sector experience.

“Jon’s considerable experience in the commercialisation of natural products will be invaluable.This appointment will catalyse our efforts to establish sustainable, diversified sources of revenue and act to support the longer-term development of novel pharmaceutical candidates.

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