Matís has recently been assigned Marie Skłodowska-Curie new doctoral grant designed to provide young researchers with the knowledge, skills and international experience needed to ensure a successful career.
Different types of arsenic in seaweed - what percentage is toxic?
The recipient of this new doctoral grant is dr. Ásta Heiðrún Pétursdóttir who completed his doctoral studies last year University of Aberdeen, Scotland. The grant gives Matís a unique opportunity to establish a new research area and facility in Iceland to detect different types of arsenic in food. The project will also provide Ásta Heiðrún with diverse scientific training and important interdisciplinary experience that together will form a comprehensive basis for a successful and independent process in science. A total of 8438 applications for new doctoral grants were received in the 2014 grant year, but the success rate was 16.8%.
The project Cross section of seaweed (e. SilhouetteOfSeaweed) aims to increase consumer safety by gaining a deeper knowledge of the types of arsenic found in seaweed. Today, seaweed is increasingly used as food algae and / or in cosmetics. Particular emphasis will be placed on organic arsenic lipids found in seaweed, but recent studies suggest that organic arsenic lipids are highly toxic.1. Until now, research has mainly focused on inorganic arsenic, which is carcinogenic (cf. the media discussion about arsenic in rice), but organic arsenic has so far been considered less dangerous than inorganic arsenic.
There is an urgent need to increase research on arsenic lipids today. Few teams with this expertise and research facilities exist worldwide and this project is an opportunity for Iceland to be a leader in a new and exciting field of research. The project is in collaboration with a specialist in arsenic lipid research Technical University of Denmark (DTU). The project also strengthens domestic collaboration where the project is carried out in collaboration with the Icelandic chemical analysis company ArcticMass.
The outcome of the project is primarily twofold. On the one hand, to build a database on arsenic lipids in different types of seaweed that has been collected in three different places in Iceland at different times of the year. This will be an important contribution to ensuring consumer safety and facilitating risk assessment of seaweed. However, a thorough statistical analysis and comparison of environmental data when collecting the samples (such as salinity, nutrients, temperature, location, etc.) will allow to determine the ideal conditions for collecting seaweed when toxic arsenic is likely to be minimal.
For further information dr. Ásta Heiðrún Pétursdóttir.