Sponsor: GEOMAR

Where: IZ1

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A group of eleven institutions from seven different countries has joined forces to set up a consortium of experts to cooperatively conduct the project "Marine Fungi" which received funding from the EU under the "Seventh Framework Programm".
MARINE FUNGI demonstrates the sustainable exploitation of under-utilised marine natural resources. By providing appropriate culture conditions for fungal-based marine organisms, the aim is to enable efficient production of marine natural products in the laboratory and also in large scale cultures, and in doing so avoiding harm to the natural environment. The therapeutic focus of MARINE FUNGI is the development of novel anti-cancer compounds to the stage of in vivo proof of concept ready to enter further development in order to valorise the results of the project.
MARINE FUNGI covers two approaches to gain effective producer strains:
a) Candidate strains from one partners strain collection will be characterised and optimised using molecular methods.
b) New fungi were isolated from unique habitats, i.e. tropical coral reefs, endemic macroalgae and sponges from the Mediterranean. Culture conditions for these new isolates are optimised for the production of new anti-cancer metabolites
MARINE FUNGI developed a process concept for these compounds providing the technological basis for a sustainable use of marine microbial products as result of Blue Biotech. The project explore the potential of marine fungi as excellent sources for usefull new natural compounds. This was accomplished by the formation of a new strongly interacting research network comprising the scientific and technological actors, including 3 SMEs and 2 IPCP partners, necessary to move along the added-value chain from the marine habitat to the pre-clinical candidate and process concept.