Bioactive substances

Seaweeds contain thousands of chemicals, but only a small number have been tested for human benefits. Chemicals produced by seaweeds to protect themselves from grazers can have anti-cancer and antibiotics applications. Seaweed are observed to be the source of bioactive substances like polysaccharides, proteins, lipids and polyphenols, with antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal properties, as well as many others.

Working together to identify the key interesting species which could provide new and novel biochemical, this project will extract, purify and characterize the biomolecules using a suite of verified and validated methodologies developed for the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, agri-food and marine industries.

Ultimately we want to extract, purify and test novel chemical from algal mat specie; providing a use for the increasing and ongoing algal mat challenges intertidal mudflats are currently experiencing.