University of the Western Cape’s Institute Joins The Multi-national Blueremediomics Project
The marine microbiome is one of the fastest growing segments of the blue bioeconomy, and its study is vital for the discovery, understanding, protection and utilisation of ocean resources. BlueRemediomics aims to launch a new era of biodiscovery and will develop novel tools and approaches to explore marine microbiome data. It unites an international consortium of experts to work on the discovery and production of high
Professor Marla Trindade
value sustainable marine microbiome-based products, processes and services, which have the potential to strengthen the global blue economy.
The project provides an opportunity for the high-calibre, multi-national research team to amalgamate and apply different sets of advanced technologies to unlock this potential, while also ensuring sustainable and equitable exploitation, maintaining ocean health, and improving ocean literacy through an improved appreciation of ocean microbes.
The project will systematically catalogue marine microbiome data and marine culture collections to facilitate the development of industrial processes that reduce waste, increase the reuse of natural products and by-products, and improve aquaculture processes.
As the only African partner in the project that involves 23 academic and industry partners from 10 countries, the IMBM’s participation is testimony to Professor Marla Trindade and Dr Leonardo (Lonnie) van Zyl’s expertise and the level to which their research is internationally regarded. Under the banner of the DSI/NRF SARChI Research Chair in Microbial Genomics, the IMBM team has been involved in several large international consortia that focus on biodiscovery research and the development and commercialisation of new substances from marine invertebrate-associated bacteria sampled along the South African coastline.
Several projects are underway to establish a pipeline of new drugs to treat numerous diseases. In BlueRemediomics the team will be focusing on antimicrobial peptides and anti-aging compounds from South African marine microbiomes.
The project was initiated in December 2022, and an in-person workshop was held in Naples, Italy from 3 to 7 April 2023. Professor Trindade and Dr van Zyl attended the workshop. Trindade says: “The project is a very exciting opportunity for the IMBM team to continue long-standing collaborations with Professor Donatella de Pascale, Dr Pietro Tedesco (Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Stazion ZN, Italy) and Prof Marcel Jaspers (University of Aberdeen, Scotland), but also to initiate new partnerships to develop cosmeceuticals and antimicrobial peptides from our microbial collections. Two postdoctoral fellows, Drs Fazlin Pheiffer and Nompumelelo Nyembe, have already joined the project, who, together with the students involved, will benefit from the many opportunities that are presented through such large consortia collaborations”.