Descrizione del progetto
Coltivare fonti microalgali di fucoxantina
Alcune alghe marine sono un vero toccasana per la salute. La fucoxantina, ad esempio, è una sostanza naturale proveniente dalle alghe brune. Questo pigmento carotenoide di colore bruno dorato è in grado di abbattere il grasso bianco presente nel corpo, uccidere le cellule cancerogene e contribuire a combattere il diabete di tipo 2. Il processo di estrazione della fucoxantina dalle alghe brune, un tipo di coltura stagionale, non è sostenibile in quanto dispendioso in termini di tempo e denaro. Il progetto AlgaHealth, finanziato dall’UE, ha isolato, sviluppato e coltivato nuovi ceppi proprietari di microalghe della specie Isochrysis. Nuove manipolazioni agrofisiologiche hanno aiutato a farli crescere più velocemente e a produrre una maggiore quantità di fucoxantina. Grazie al suo metodo innovativo per la coltivazione di microalghe al di fuori dell’ambiente marino e di nuovi ceppi microalgali, AlgaHealth produrrà fucoxantina di alta qualità a livelli commerciali.
Obiettivo
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.
Campo scientifico
- 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
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Invito a presentare proposte
Vedi altri progetti per questo bandoBando secondario
H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1
Meccanismo di finanziamento
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinatore
Misgav
Israele
L’organizzazione si è definita una PMI (piccola e media impresa) al momento della firma dell’accordo di sovvenzione.