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iCulture: A digital bio-platform and co-culture bioprocess to prospect and utilize macroalgae responsibly and sustainably.

Descrizione del progetto

Piattaforma digitale per l’uso sostenibile e la ricerca sulla biomassa di alghe marine

L’Europa vanta oltre 100 megatoni di alghe, la sua biomassa più grande. Stranamente, solo lo 0,25 % di questa risorsa viene utilizzato, principalmente come fertilizzante a basso costo. Con i metodi attuali si fatica a sfruttare il potenziale di migliaia di macroalghe identificate. Tuttavia i dati raccolti su di loro sono fondamentali per l’utilizzo sostenibile di questa risorsa. Il progetto iCULTURE, finanziato dall’UE, mira a creare un consorzio interdisciplinare di esperti europei in TIC, biodiversità e campi correlati per creare una piattaforma digitale e strumenti per l’utilizzo sostenibile della biomassa delle alghe. Questi strumenti faciliteranno la scoperta di nuove specie, la ricerca su di esse e forniranno algoritmi di intelligenza artificiale specializzati per la cura di oltre 80 TB di dati attualmente disponibili.

Obiettivo

Over 100 Megatons of seaweed constitute Europe's largest biomass, but less than 0.25% is utilized. Marine industry stakeholders are currently left with 50-70% of residual side-streams sold as low-cost fertilizers. Existing data on more than 10000 macroalgae species could help this industry to improve their processes but the data is too large and manual curation is not feasible. Despite the progression of artificial intelligence (A.I.) and digital instruments, these techniques have barely entered the biobased sector.

iCulture is a cross-disciplinary consortium where European expertise on ICT, bioinformatic, biodiversity, biotechnology, synthetic biology and bioprocessing is combined to develop a set of digital toolboxes that can prospect for new species of seaweed, utilize these in microbial fermentation, and understand how to use it responsibly and sustainably.

Over 80 TB of existing seaweed data and 700.000 genes will be mined by machine learning algorithms in an A.I. toolbox to identify macroalgae characteristics: growth, response to environmental conditions, chemical composition and more. These will be used by a predictive Model toolbox, with models for compositional changes, recovery, resilience and Dispersion, to deliver key features that are important for responsible resource management. A Bioprocess technology toolbox will use this information for a machine learning controlled microbial co-culture, that will convert complex sugar mixtures to catalysts producing high-value antimicrobials.

The multiple benefits of this digital platform are 1) boost the prospecting efficiency of new species by using powerful A.I. algorithms 2) help to understand the potential and vulnerability of resources, so that a responsible management strategy can guide the operations of stakeholders, and 3) create a novel value-chain, valorizing European seaweed side-streams into valuable antimicrobials (>$150/kg) for feed, food and pharma, while reducing CO2 footprint more than 20%.

Coordinatore

NORGES TEKNISK-NATURVITENSKAPELIGE UNIVERSITET NTNU
Contribution nette de l'UE
€ 1 303 403,75
Indirizzo
HOGSKOLERINGEN 1
7491 Trondheim
Norvegia

Mostra sulla mappa

Regione
Norge Trøndelag Trøndelag
Tipo di attività
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Collegamenti
Costo totale
€ 1 303 403,75

Partecipanti (15)

Partner (3)