BIOPROSP_23
Day 1 - 14 March
Parallel sessions
09:00 - 12:00
Pre conference workshop EU OPENSCREEN. See own tab
Pre-seminar 2
12:00
Lunch
12:45 - 14:00
Opening session and keynote
13:00 - 13:15
Welcome to BIOPROSP_23!
Jeanette H. Andersen, University of Tromso
13:15 - 14:00
Opening key note
Roberto Danovaro, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn
Session 1: Future Trends, Tools, Bio informatics
14:15 - 14:45
Keynote: Genome Resolved Metagenomics -
Understanding the potential of marine microbial communities for novel product discovery
The field of metagenomics has expanded rapidly over the past decade, both in terms of the number and diversity of different datasets, and the volume of biological insight that can be gleaned from the sequence data. One area of significant growth has been the assembly of datasets, and the subsequent elucidation of genomes, so called metagenome assembled genomes.
14:45 - 15:15
Keynote: In silico discovery methods: how 3D modeling is advancing in biocatalyst development
- Quick overview on current modeling approaches
- In silico enzyme discovery: BIOMATCHMAKER®
- How can novel methods support marine bioprospecting?
15:15 - 15:45
Commercializing early-stage research - what are the investors looking for?
Dr Milla Koistinaho is a founding partner of a new €90 million venture capital fund, managed by Innovestor Life Science Oy, and invests in strong health sciences based companies in the Nordics and Baltics. She will talk about her own path from being a researcher to an entrepreneur and eventually to her current role as an investment professional in life sciences. She will share insight and tips to the audience regarding what to consider on the way to commercialize research results and what are investors’ expectations from the research team when spinning out companies stemming from academic research.
Milla Koistinaho, Innovestor
15:45 - 16:00
Coffee break
16:00 - 16:10
Digital bioprospecting
Digital bioprospecting for exploring biodiversity and discovering novel bioactive compounds and industrial enzymes
Giang-Son Nguyen, SINTEF
16:10 - 16:20
Computational design of a thermophilic chorismate mutase
Ryan Scott Wilkins, University of Tromsoe
16:20 - 16:30
A fragment to bind them all!
Characterising phorbazole fragments as pan-kinase inhibitors.
Guillaume Petit, University of Tromsoe
16:30 - 16:40
Discovery of xylan debranching enzymes by functional metagenomics
Simone Balzer Le, SINTEF
16:40 - 17:15
Visits at the posters and the sponsor exhibitions
Bus leaves for the city centre
The bus fare is included in your BIOPROSP ticket. More information will come in the tab "Getting around".
19:30
Opening party
The opening party takes place at "Ølhallen" (The Beer Hall) in Macks Brewery. See the "Social events" tab for more info!
Day 2 - 15 March
Session 2 - Natural Product Discovery / Engineering & Biomedical Applications
09:00 - 09:45
Keynote: New chemistry from hidden biological sources
- Most of the cultivated and uncultivated bacterial life is chemically unexplored
- Genome- and ecology-guided natural product discovery
- Widespread, new natural product families with pharmacological potential
09:45 - 10:15
SPM are functional biomarkers for omega-3 supplements
SPM are functional biomarkers for omega-3 supplements in determining their ability to regulate immune responses.
Supplementation of animals and humans with essential fatty acids, in particular omega-3 fatty acids, exerts protective actions reducing vascular and systemic inflammation. The mechanism(s) activated by these supplements in exerting their protective actions remain poorly understood. Furthermore, clinical studies using a range of omega-3 supplements have yielded conflicting results on their efficacy to control inflammation. Omega-3 fatty acids are substrate for the formation of potent immune-protective mediators, termed as specialized pro-resolving mediators (SPM). To gain better insights into the immune directed mechanisms activated by omega-3 supplements we evaluated the relationship between supplementation, SPM concentrations and the regulation of phagocyte biology in experimental settings and humans. Using lipid mediator profiling we found that commercially available supplements conferred a unique SPM signature profile to human macrophages, with the overall increases in SPM concentrations being different between distinct supplements. We also observed omega-3 supplements selectively upregulated peripheral blood SPM levels in a dose-depended manner. Changes in SPM concentrations were correlated with the ability of the supplements to regulate innate immune responses. Together these findings support the utility of SPM as potential prognostic functional markers in determining the utility of a given supplement to regulate immune responses and inflammation.
10:15 - 10:45
To be announced
10:45 - 11:00
Coffee break
11:00 - 11:10
Combining OSMAC and metabologenomic approaches to discover novel biosurfactants
Combining OSMAC and metabologenomic approaches to discover novel biosurfactants from a marine Rhodococcus
Costanza Ragozzino, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn
11:10 - 11:20
Exploring the diversity and bioactive potential of Portuguese deep-sea Actinobacteria
Inês Ribeiro, University of Porto
11:20 - 11:30
Multipurpose screening of a marine bacteria strain collection
Simon Loevenich, SINTEF
11:30 - 12:30
Lunch
Session 3 - Marine Ecology & Biodiversity
12:30 - 13:15
Keynote: The scent of a copepod- chemical alarm signals in marine plankton
Marine phytoplankton sense their enemies by chemical alarm signals emitted by their zooplankton enemies. The cueing compounds from the most abundant zooplankton in the sea, copepods, was identified as a group of polar lipids called copepodamides.
- Copepodamides induce defensive traits in a wide variety of organisms including toxin production in harmful algae causing amnesic and paralytic shellfish poisoning.
- Other prey organisms respond by reduced colony-size or increased bioluminescent capacity.
- Copepods are present in all aquatic habitats, both freshwater and marine. The copeopdamide signaling system may consequently be one of the most widespread on earth.
- Purified copepodamides can be used to manipulate plankton organisms and elicit defensive traits also in the absence of predators. Specific examples involve deciphering the molecular machinery behind defensive traits such as toxin production and assessing the costs and benefits of defensive traits.
- Copepodamides can also be measured in situ to improve lead time and precision in harmful algal bloom forecasts.
13:15 - 13:45
Keynote: Biodiscovery in Arctic deep-sea hydrothermal vent systems
- Biogeography and evolution of archaeal hydrothermal vent lineages
- Novel metabolic properties of microbial isolates and co-cultures
- Diversity and biochemical properties of new enzymes
13:45 - 14:15
To be announced
Bente Edvardsen, University of Oslo
14:15 - 14:45
Coffee break
14:45 - 14:55
To be announced
14:55 - 15:05
Microbes from the Arctic deep ocean: a resource for plastic bioremediation
Katharina Sass, University of Bergen
15:05 - 15:15
Bioprospecting of Maldivian soft corals
Bioprospecting of Maldivian soft corals: chemical ecology and anticancer activity of their secondary metabolites
Federico Cerri, University of Milano-Bicocca
15:15 - 15:25
Metabolomics studies on Micromonospora species producers of phocoenamicins
Fernando Reyes, Fundación MEDINA
15:25 - 16:15
Visits at the posters and the sponsor exhibitions
Bus leaves for the city centre
19:00
Conference banquet
The conference banquet is held at Clarion Hotel The Edge. See the "Social events" tab for more info.
Day 3 - 16 March
Session 4 - Marine enzymes, microorganisms and cells
09:00 - 09:45
Unlocking the potential of the natural and artificial diversity for the bioeconomy
Unlocking the potential of the natural and artificial diversity for the bioeconomy using (ultra)high-throughput methods.
The application of enzymes in industrial processes is increasingly important to achieve the EU’s sustainability goals and strengthen the bioeconomy, replacing oil-based chemistry. Society demands more environment-friendly,healthier products and cleaner energy. While enzymes have the potential to meet these demands, they still find several hurdles for their industrial application: low success rates of discovery and engineering; tedious and expensive methods to explore diversity and limited activity/stability in the final application.
The microbial diversity represents an unfathomable source of enzymes for the bioeconomy, but only a small fraction can be cultivated. For this reason, it is an underexplored source of bioactive compounds, carbohydrate polymers and enzymes, among others. Sampling the natural microbial diversity, screening, identifying and isolating the relevant genes is cumbersome, expensive and results in a heavy environmental burden, low yields, high costs and long times to market, in particular if we opt for function-based, information-agnostic methods as a gateway to new diversity that could not be found otherwise.
Throughout the course of EU-funded proyects CarbaZymes, MetaFluidics, RadicalZ and BlueTools, we have been developing (and will develop) technology to overcome the limitations both for the study of microbial communities and their “econological use” and to tailor the discovered enzymes towards industrial applications. Our methods for enzyme discovery in the natural and artificial diversity make use of whole cells (in vivo) or cell-like compartments (in vitro) for recombinant expression, reducing the average time for enzyme discovery and evolution while increasing the amount of sampled sequence space.
Aurelio Hidalgo, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
09:45 - 10:15
Development of enzymes from nature's repertoire for industrial application.
On the way to a sustainable industry, enzymes will play a key role. It is our task to take the results of evolution as a starting point and put them to use for industrial purposes. Microorganisms have populated our planet for almost four billion years and evolution offers a wealth of fascinating opportunities. One part of nature’s toolbox is the intriguing world of enzymes. Enzymes are versatile helpmates for building, degrading and modifying molecules. Gaining access to nature’s toolbox and developing enzymes for industrial challenges is a multidisciplinary task. My talk will highlight enzyme development projects executed by BRAIN Biotech using methods from the fields of discovery, protein engineering, and microbial production. A focus will be on our large digital metagenomic database (SeqPool) - a powerful resource for enzyme discovery.
Alexander Pelzer, BRAIN Biotech
10:15 - 10:45
Coffee break
10:45 - 10:55
Improving organoleptic properties of fish protein hydrolysates
Improving organoleptic properties of fish protein hydrolysates through monooxygenase engineering
Rasmus Ree, NORCE
10:55 - 11:05
Characterization of endo-fucoidanase activity by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry
Diego Reyes-Weiss, Norwegian University of Life Sciences
11:05 - 11:15
Microfluidics and synthetic biology methods to enzyme discovery
Rahmi Lale, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
11:15 - 11:45
Targeted and efficient discovery of enzymes from marine biodiversity - both genomes and metagenomes
Lene Lange, BioEconomy, Research & Advisory
11:45 - 12:00
Award for best poster 2023!
The award for best scientific poster is sponsored by Marine Drugs.
12:00 - 13:00
Lunch
13:00 - 15:30
Industry seminar
To be announced
End of BIOPROSP_23