Today, Friday and tomorrow Saturday, Matís employees will use remote-controlled submarines to collect samples from sponges and sea urchins in Breiðfjörður. The aim is to investigate whether it is possible to process new types of drugs from sponges and sea urchins.
Sponges are known to defend themselves with chemical warfare, so research is now aimed at examining whether this property can be used to make drugs. 7000 bioactive molecules have already been detected in sponges.
Scientists' interest in marine bioactive substances is growing at the same time as technology enables humans to study nature with even greater precision than before.
According to Ragnar Jóhannsson at Matís, who is leading the project, one of the main challenges will be to find ways to isolate a sufficient amount of bioactive substances to use in production.
Sampling from the sponges is part of two projects Bluepharmtrain and BlueGenics. Sampling from the sea urchins is part of the project ResUrch. The projects are funded by the Marie Curie EU Program and the 7th European Framework Program (FP7). The grants amount to just over ISK 80 million.
For further information Ragnar Jóhannsson.