SEABIOMED, will focus on the isolation and characterisation of bioactive compounds from local marine photosynthetic organisms (MPOs). The driving forces of SEABIOMED are the ‘Centre of Marine Sciences’ (CCMAR, Portugal) and ‘Institute for Biomedical Research, Parc Cientific de Barcelona’ (IRRB-PCB, Spain). CCMAR is a non-profit organization dedicated to R&D in the Marine Sciences, while IRB is an independent, non-profit research institution engaged in basic and applied biomedical research.

SEABIOMED is composed of 12 scientific tasks and 2 coordination workpackages dedicated to project management and the dissemination of results. The structure and contents of the scientific component are designed to assess the biological activity of MPOs present on the Algarve shore as well as in coastal and inlet waters. It focus on species less studied, or biological activities not reported to date, so that the results obtained will significantly advance the state of the art.

The samples will be collected, identified and cultured in the case of microalgae (Tasks 1, 2) by team members with experience in those areas, and with the expertise of consultants. To maximise the extraction of phytochemicals belonging to different classes of bioactive compounds, an array of extraction methods using solvents of diverse polarity will be used (Tasks 3 and 4).

The assessment of the biological activities will focus on diseases/biological processes with real impact on human health, such as oxidation (T5), inflammation (T6), cancer (T7), neurogenerative disorders (T8) and leishmaniasis (T9). The potential of MPOs as sources of pharmacologic compounds against those diseases/disorders will be assessed by pre-tested, reliable individual activity screening assays.