In the last issue of Bændablaðið, an interview was published with Sæmundur Sveinsson, director of genetic research at Matís, and the topic was a research project he is currently working on in order to protect genetic variability in sheep against rubella.
Bændablaðið's article "Project on the search for protective genetic mutations in sheep against rubella" discussed Matís' project, which is funded by the Professional Council for Sheep Breeding and is carried out in collaboration with Keldur. The project is about refining scabies gene analyzes in Iceland by adding genotypic analyzes of the protective variability that is best known for providing great protection against scrapie in sheep. This is the second of two projects in Iceland today that focus on scrapie analysis.
In the interview, Sæmundur discusses the possibilities inherent in these improvements, but emphasizes that this is not a quick fix, but that the project will possibly provide tools that can be used in the fight against riding in the long run.
Þorsteinn Sigurðsson, director of the Marine Research Institute, and Oddur M. Gunnarsson, director of Matís, signed a co-operation agreement on 27 October. to strengthen and strengthen the institutions' co-operation on research and sharing of infrastructure.
The key to successful science and innovation is good access to research infrastructure and undoubtedly increased collaboration creates significant opportunities for both parties in times of great challenges, for example in aquaculture, genetics and environmental change in the Arctic.
The good co-operation between the institutions has taken place for a long time, from the years when they shared housing at Skúlagöa 4 in Reykjavík. There has also been a great and good collaboration between Matís and the GRÓ Fisheries School, which the Marine Research Institute has hosted for many years. The agreement formalizes this good co-operation as well as creating further opportunities in marine and water research.
At the request of the Food Administration, the Risk Assessment Committee in the field of food, feed, fertilizers and seeds has investigated whether the consumption of energy drinks containing caffeine has a negative effect on the health of young people in upper secondary schools.
The report shows that the importance of energy drinks in the total caffeine consumption of Icelandic young people is greater than has been seen in comparable foreign studies. More than half of high school students consume energy drinks once a week or more and 10-20% high school students drink energy drinks daily. Students who consume energy drinks are about six times more likely to exceed the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) thresholds for the amount of caffeine that affects sleep and the caffeine safety limits for the cardiovascular system compared to those students who do not consume energy drinks.
The committee's conclusions indicate that there is reason to restrict upper secondary school students' access to energy drinks, as the supply, accessibility and marketing of energy drinks seem to result in the consumption of Icelandic upper secondary school students being higher than desirable.
The Risk Assessment Committee issued a similar report a year ago which covers the consumption of young people in 8.-10. grade on energy drinks. The results show that the proportion of students who consume energy drinks twice a week or more often increases with age, with about one in ten eighth-graders consuming energy drinks more than twice a week than every other high school student aged 18-20. It is interesting to note that younger young people are more likely to receive energy drinks as a gift in connection with sports and group work (40-70%) than older young people (10%). Recently, the media have covered the report of the Risk Assessment Committee from 2020 on the one hand here: It is common for children to receive energy drinks free of charge and on the other hand here: Swallow twelve times the amount of caffeine and experience discomfort.
Viggó studied biology at the University of Iceland and graduated with a BS degree. He went to France for postgraduate studies and defended his doctoral dissertation at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale in early 1997. Viggó is a specialist in microbiology and professor at the Faculty of Food and Nutrition at the University of Iceland as well as being a professional leader in research and innovation at Matís ohf.
After completing his doctorate from the Université de Bretagne Occidentale, he has collaborated well with the French scientific community. This connection has led to many French students coming to Iceland and working for longer and shorter periods on projects that have been part of their projects for a master's or doctoral degree.
"Although some have completed or are completing doctoral studies under my supervision at the University of Iceland and have worked on their research projects at research institutes such as Matís," says Viggó. "Some of these students have been here for a long time after their studies and have research positions at Matís. This successful co-operation between the nations in the field of science continues and I firmly believe that it will be strengthened in the future. "
The word was published on November 20, 2020, but due to Covid-19, the word was given on June 9, 2021.
The Arctic Circle conference was held in Harpa last weekend. The conference was the first international event held in Europe since the beginning of the Covid-19 epidemic.
Matís took part in the conference and the participation included panel discussions on the blue economy and mainly discussions on the opportunities inherent in the blue bioeconomy in the Arctic. The panel was organized by the Arctic Economic Council. It was about a conversation about how the business community has come to find solutions to various societal challenges through innovation and value creation.
Participants in the panel were:
Bryndís Björnsdóttir from Matís
Leslie Canavera from PolArctic
Patrick Arnold of the New England Ocean Cluster
Mads Qvist Frederiksen from the Economic Council
The discussions that took place were summarized in a drawing that can be seen here:
On Thursday, October 21, an honorary seminar will be held for Sigurjón Arason in Veröld, Vigdís' house
Sigurjón Arason has worked for Matís since its establishment and now works as a chief engineer at the company. The honorary symposium will, among other things, cover the many and varied tasks he has carried out over the years in the interest of food development.
14 students from Poland and Iceland are currently completing a course on the utilization of by-products of food.
The course ends with a hackathon on Saturday where participants are divided into teams to find solutions to the problems of three food companies in the utilization of certain foods.
Hacking program:
10.00 Welcome. Allocating teams to problem
10:30 Ideation and selecting idea
12:00 Lunch and inspirational talk
13:00 Team working on ideas. Prototyping
14:00 Other kind of activity
14:15 How to pitch
14:45 Team working on pitches
16:30 Pitching in front of jury
17:30 Prices. Certificates. Thank you and farewell.
All interested people are encouraged to participate. If you want to register or get more information, you can contact Guðjón Þorkelsson via e-mail gudjont@matis.is
The projects undertaken by apprentices and specialists at Matís are varied. Last week, Þóra Valsdóttir, project manager, went on a beach trip with interns Romain Canuel and Sabrina Rechtsteiner.
The reason for going on a beach trip was that in the project MINERVA came to sample collection. The aim of the MINERVA project is to make untapped life resources, in this case biomass of algae growing throughout Europe, higher under the head. This will be done by improving processing methods and thus contributing to less waste and the development of new, valuable high-quality products from the raw material.
The sampling went well, as a rich garden was grazed, as can be seen in the attached pictures.
More information about the project can be found on its project page here: MINERVA
In its latest issue, Bændablaðið published an article about a newly published report by Sæmundur Sveinsson, director of genetic research at Matís, which dealt with parental analyzes in Icelandic sheep.
The report, entitled "Development of a Molecular Genetic Method for Parental Analysis in Icelandic Sheep", was published as a final product of a project of the same name, which was carried out in collaboration with Eyþór Einarsson, a sheep breeding consultant at the Agricultural Advisory Center and funded by the Agricultural Productivity Fund. The aim of the project was to test internationally recognized genetic markers in order to develop tools for parental analysis in Icelandic sheep. It is important for sheep breeding to have the opportunity to be able to confirm the pedigree of animals, both in terms of trusting pedigree data for the breeding work but also for research on genetic defects.
In an interview with Bændablaðið, Sæmundur says that there are hopes that with this diagnostic tool it will be possible to systematically reduce serious genetic defects in sheep, such as those that cause book crises - which is a disease that causes malformations in the development of limbs in lambs.
The meeting is open to anyone who is interested in salmon farming and wants to get to know the main things that are happening regarding its topics. There has been a lot of discussion about land-based farming, but the cultivation of juveniles is partly land-based farming, where placement in sea cages is shortened but the length of controlled farming on land. It is part of the fight against salmon / fish lice, for example.
Refreshments will be offered at the meeting and payment for ISK will be expected. 3,000. The meeting will be held in English.
The agenda of the meeting is outlined below.
All interested are welcome!
The Nordic Salmon Workshop in Thorlakshofn 27th of October at 08:30
A workshop on salmon farming will be held on October 27 at Ölfus Cluster, Hafnarberg 1, 815 Þorlákshöfn. The meeting starts at 08:30 and ends at 17:00 the same day.
The workshop subjects:
Salmon feed: new sources and optimal composition for different environments
New development in sea- and salmon louse
Production of large smolts in hatcheries
Salmon feed will be a very dynamic area of research and development in the future. With feed requirements of salmon growing in extreme environmental conditions, such as low temperature, are not fully understood. Furthermore, technical solution to minimize movements of fish in sea cage during the coldest periods in winter could improve conditions of fish during the coldest months
Several options already exist for chemically treating salmon lice in sea cages. However, there are two main problems associated with treating lice in such a way. Firstly, there are negative environmental impacts and secondly, lice can and have developed resistance to many of the available chemicals currently being used
There has been a growing interest in land-based salmon farming under more controlled environment. Large smolt farming is a land-based farming, with longer growing time ashore and shorter in ONP, reducing risk in farming with higher cost. Reducing lead time in sea also enables producers to reduce the spread in biomass throughout the year. This may be one of the most sustainable ways of maximizing utilization of licenses.
The meeting is open to anybody interested in salmon farming. Included are refreshments at the meeting and reception at Lax-inn in Reykjavík after the meeting. The cost is ISK 3,000.
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