Health from the Sea

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The Marine Biotechnology is an emerging technology which is concerned with the application of science and technology on marine bioresources. The development of Marine Biotechnology is still at an early stage but offering significant potentials. According to recent studies, the world market for Marine Biotechnology will raise from 4.1 billion US $ in 2015 up to 6.4 billion US $ in 2025. The algae in North and Baltic Sea is a valuable, but yet underutilized marine bioresource which is available in the programme region. These algae contain ingredients with a variety of health benefits. One of these beneficial ingredients is fucoidan which can be extracted from the brown algae. The project "FucoSan - health from the sea" brings together the expertise in the German-Danish program area in a cross-border regional cluster based on the value chain (research and development, provision, preparation and processing of marine bioresources, creation of conditions for commercialization) to set up the conditions for cross-border commercial use of fucoidans in the areas of health and wellbeing. Within the project, an innovation network of Marine Biotechnology will be established, representing the relevant competences and interdisciplinary expertise of key players from science and industry. By implementing the project, a new value chain for the commercialization of Fucoidan will be established. As a significant part of this value chain a characterization platform (database) will be implemented. In this platform the characteristics of various fucoidan fractions from different sources will be collected based on their relevance for the commercial exploitation. To foster the commercialisation of fucoidan, the information of the characterization platform will be accessible to users from research and industry. Fucoidan will be obtained from various sources, processed and analyzed by different research institutions regarding their characteristics. The results are entered into the database that serves as a reference for selecting suitable fucoidans for different applications. Based on the data collected, three fucoidan fractions are selected that will be tested in three pilot activities specifically for their suitability to use in cosmetics, in ophthalmology and regenerative medicine. In close contact with the network partners strategies for commercial use are developed. Therefore, the project has built up a strong cross-border network of German and Danish experts in the field of marine research, specialised research on fucoidans and Marine Biotechnology, as well as experts in economics.

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