International research team using marine organisms to combat osteoporosis

The European research project BlueGenics has received funding of EUR 6 million from the European Commission with the aim of searching for substances from the deep sea to combat osteoporosis and other human common diseases.

With an international research team, coordinated by Professor Dr Werner E.G. Müller from the Institute of Physiological Chemistry of the Mainz University Medical Center, the intention is to identify and to utilise genetic blueprints from marine organisms. This will include deep-sea sponges and bacteria, for the production of biomedically relevant substances. This will allow the research team sustainable use of marine resources without having a negative impact on biodiversity.

The coordinator of the BlueGenics project, Professor Müller says, 'As we can see, by funding this joint large-scale research project the European Union has recognized the need to make every effort to develop new and effective drugs for the prevention and treatment of common diseases, for which efficient therapies are still missing, such as osteoporosis. I am extremely glad that this project has now been successfully started. BlueGenics brings together leading researchers from nine countries. The unique and complementary expertise provided by these and their advanced equipment provide an excellent basis to reach the ambitious objectives of this project.'

Müller and his research team have already demonstrated that bioactive substances can be synthesised by applying recombinant molecular biology techniques. They were able to demonstrate that defensin, a toxin and defense peptide produced by sponges, is bioactive if produced in a recombinant way. Professor Müller adds, 'This paves the way for exploiting the large treasure of genetic blueprints present in the world-wide oceans for human benefit.'

The European project BlueGenics brings together the leading researchers from the areas of marine genomics, biosynthesis and chemical structure analysis. Participants of this project coordinated by Professor Müller at the Mainz University Medical Center are 16 research institutions and industrial companies from China, Croatia, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Portugal, Sweden and the United Kingdom. According to Professor Dr Reinhard Urban, Chief Scientific Officer of the University Medical Center, 'We are practically just at the beginning to exploit marine resources, especially those from the little-explored deep sea, for biomedical purposes. However, it is now already foreseeable that research on deep-sea organisms is likely to produce remarkable results for our society.'

The project uses blue biotechnology, which is primarily concerned with the biotechnological use of marine organisms. Of particular interest are sponges and deep-sea bacteria, which live under extreme conditions more than 1,000 metres below the sea level. These organisms are considered to be a source of valuable substances that can be used in biotechnology and biomedicine. While the majority of the known enzymes break down on exposure to high temperatures, the biocatalysts produced by deep-sea bacteria remain active under extreme conditions, even in the vicinity of marine hydrothermal vents.

What makes blue technology so interesting for research is that even obviously simple organisms, such as marine sponges, are similar to humans in many ways. The relationship between these oldest animals and human beings is surprisingly close, as the Mainz research team has demonstrated in recent years by means of molecular biological techniques. In addition, these organisms produce a variety of substances that have evolved a high degree of specificity and effectiveness during the course of evolution, and hence have attracted increasing interest to their possible therapeutic use in humans, such as in the treatment of viral infections.

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Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz:  http://www.uni-mainz.de