Marine biotechnology

Marine biotechnology is a rapidly growing sector that encompasses a wide range of disciplines to develop novel or alternative products or services from the marine environment. Potential applications include new medicines, human health products and chemicals for use in the manufacturing and food industries.

 

For many years PML has been active in the area of marine biotechnology, developing sustainable solutions from the sea that will be of benefit to society. Scientists at PML have successfully isolated and characterised hundreds of novel marine bacteria strains with the potential for exploitation. These studies have identified novel proteins, which could improve existing industrial processes, as well as providing new routes to the development of novel chemicals. Investigations are also being undertaken to develop an environmentally safe biocide, for use on marine equipment, by “listening in” on bacterial conversations and interrupting their signals to attach to non-biological surfaces.


Projects

  • Carbon Trust
    The Carbon Trust is working with PML to find a formula for cultivating biofuel from algae. PML's role in the project is to screen thousands of new algal strains to identify which algae will be able to produce large quantities of a substance similar to vegetable oil for conversion to biofuel which could then lead to large scale commercial production.
  • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Biofuels

    BBSRC funded scientists from PML are working on a 5 year collaborative project with the University of Durham to investigate the optimisation of lipid production from microalgae for the production of biofuels. The ultimate aim of the project is to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and provide a viable alternative to land-crop biofuels.