Descripción del proyecto
Cultivo de fuentes microalgales de fucoxantina
Algunas algas son muy buenas para la salud. La fucoxantina, por ejemplo, es una sustancia natural que se extrae del alga parda. Este pigmento carotenoide de color marrón dorado puede descomponer la grasa blanca del cuerpo, matar células cancerosas y ayudar a combatir la diabetes de tipo 2. La recolección de la fucoxantina de las algas pardas no es sostenible, ya que este cultivo estacional tiene un proceso de extracción caro y que requiere mucho tiempo. El proyecto AlgaHealth, financiado con fondos europeos, ha aislado, desarrollado y cultivado cepas de microalgas nuevas y patentadas de especies de «Isochrysis». Las nuevas manipulaciones agrofisiológicas ayudaron a que crecieran más rápido y produjeran más fucoxantina. Gracias a su innovador método para el cultivo de microalgas en el interior y novedosas cepas de microalgas, AlgaHealth producirá niveles de fucoxantina de primera calidad a escala comercial.
Objetivo
Obesity, diabetes and other metabolic syndromes affect an increasing proportion of the population and pose significant economic burden to healthcare systems. To prevent and treat lifestyle-related diseases, it is not sufficient to use an exclusively pharmacological treatment. Nutrition also plays a critical role. Therefore, researchers began to find safe and effective functional ingredients in food to prevent and treat such diseases. One of these functional ingredients is fucoxanthin - a golden-brown carotenoid found in macro and microalgae.
The common method to harvest fucoxanthin is from macroalgae (brown seaweeds), but it is not an acceptable alternative because it is seasonal, not sustainable and allows to the extraction of very low quantities of fucoxanthin. The only alternative for a more efficient and sustainable production of fucoxanthin are microalgae. However, existing production techniques of microalgae require high investment and large energy input, preventing large scale and sustainable production.
At AlgaHealth we isolated, developed and cultivated new and proprietary microalgae strains of Isochrysis species and novel agro-physiological manipulations to make them grow faster and produce more fucoxanthin. These novel technologies constitute a proven and efficient platform for industrial scale production of high quality fucoxanthin-based oleoresin, at lower energy and environmental-friendly production costs.
AlgaHealth is an Israeli biotech company founded in 2017 and stemming from its co-founders’ 20-year experience in microalgae and carotenoids industries. The proposed work in Phase 1 of the SME instrument fits into our overall plan to reach the market by contributing the financial resources needed to plan a fast sound wider deployment of AlgaHealth products and their market uptake.
Ámbito científico
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwaste managementwaste treatment processesrecycling
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologyphycology
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementbusiness models
- natural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistryalcohols
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicssustainable economy
Programa(s)
Convocatoria de propuestas
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoriaConvocatoria de subcontratación
H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1
Régimen de financiación
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinador
Misgav
Israel
Organización definida por ella misma como pequeña y mediana empresa (pyme) en el momento de la firma del acuerdo de subvención.