MabCent - Centre on Marine Bioactives and Drug Discovery

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As a marine environment, the high Arctic is unparalleled with respect to combination of temperature and light regimes. This implies evolution of a variety of unique physiological and biochemical adaptations and with correspondingly good prospects for find ing novel lead compounds and bioactives. The MabCent integrates various disciplines and partnerships of academics and expert SMEs, by acting in a consortium, which covers the pipeline from biology of marine resources/species through screening and research on bioactives to commercialisation of drugs and biotechnological and nutraceutical products. The resources to be focused are marine bacteria harvested on the surface of the ice pack or frozen sediments, marine algae sampled under different blooming cond itions and the huge variety of benthic invertebrates found in the Arctic seas. Marbank, will organise the sampling and produce extracts to the "high-throughput" screening platform, Marbio. Compounds and molecules active against bacteria, tumour cells and inflammation as well as immunostimulants and various enzymes will further be isolated and characterised by their structure and "mode of action" at the NorStruct and SmallStruct facilities and MabCent partners. All these technological platforms are state- of-the-art equipped for the tasks and targets planned in the MabCent operation. The four commercial MabCent partners will act in an R&D synergy (consortium) although at different levels and arenas (pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, research tools etc.). Th rough their interaction with the multidisciplinary expertise at UoT and academic partners, the MabCent initiative will positively nurse research and innovation and setting standards for future marine-based discovery and development.