Final Ocean4Biotech MC meeting and conference in Riga

The last Ocean4Biotech MC meeting and conference took place in Riga (Latvia) from March 4 to 7, 2024.

The first day of the event was dedicated to the CORE Group and MC meetings to give an overview of the results of the last MC meeting in Rome (May 2023) and to discuss the future of Ocean4Biotech, as the end of the COST Action does not mean the end of the Ocean4Biotech network.

On the second day, the achievements of the working groups since the start of the action (November 2019) and the statistics on the STSMs carried out were presented.

Moreover, were presented training schools and hackathon organized by Ocean4Biotech:

1. Zebrafish tools for the screening of osteogenic compounds, Portugal 2021 (M. Leonor Cancela, Joana Sousa)
2. An ocean of opportunities in the blue biotechnology sector, Cyprus 2022 (Marlen I. Vasquez)
3. Introduction to Life Cycle Assessment for marine biotechnology value chains, Greece 2023 (Arita Dubnika, Azza Silotry Naik)
4. Ocean4Biotech Hackathon: Marine biotechnology hackathon, online 2021 (Xenia Theodotou Schneider)

As well were presented collaborations that were not initially planned but started during implementation of the Ocean4biotech. There collaborations were between Action members from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Portugal, Albania and Italy, Malta and Lithuania, Slovenia and Italy.

The second day ended with a presentation of the Ocean4Biotech biorepository set up by Olivier Thomas and Maggie Reddy. More information about this biorepository can be found here.

The third day of the event was dedicated to the presentation of STSM, scientific articles and Ocean4Biotech videos.

Out of 39 STSM 12 were presented in Riga:

1. Biotechnological Potential of Marine-derived Actinomycetes from Estremadura Spur (Joana Sousa) – online.
2. Cultivation of Dunaliella salina in bubble column photobioreactor and pigment extraction (Eylem Atak) – online.
3. Metabolomics to exploite medium condition impacts on metabolite expressions in thraustochytrids (Buki Rinkevich).
4. Ecotoxicity evaluation of new antibiofouling meroterpenoids (Marlen Vasquez).
5. Spatial structure of complex biofilms and their eradication by lectins from natural resources (Jerica Sabotič).
6. Microwave assisted extraction of microalgal proteins and their characterization (Azza Silotry Naik).
7. Screening Marine and Cave Microorganisms for Polyurethane Degrading Activity (Jokūbas Krutkevičius).
8. Comparative chemical profiling and antimicrobial/anticancer evaluation of extracts from farmed versus wild Mediterranean sponges (Despoina Varamogianni-Mamatsi)
9. From lab to caves: exploring high-throughput screening method for laccase activity (Justinas Babinskas).
10. Possibilities for establishing the Open Blue Biotech Platform in the Balkans (Belma Kalamujic Stroil).
11. Biodiscovery of microorganisms related to hydrocarbon degradation from the Baltic Sea environment (Rafael Picazo Espinosa).
12. Novel chemistry from a seaweed-associated Actinomycetota (Mariana Girão)

All 39 STSM reports can be found here.

Out of 22 articles 8 were presented during the event:

1. The essentials of marine biotechnology and Ocean4Biotech (Ana Rotter)
2. Valorization of marine waste (Juris Burlakovs and Ana Rotter)
3. Marine environmental plastic pollution (Susana P. Gaudencio)
4. Aureginosamides from cyanobacteria (Marta Cegłowska)
5. Advanced methods for biodiscovery (Susana P. Gaudencio)
6. Large scale cultivation of microalgae (Lucie Novoveska)
7. Impact of PFAS on marine environment (Lada Lukic Bilela)
8. Bioassays (Jerica Sabotič)

All articles prepared in the framework of Ocean4Biotech can be found here.

Finally, some of Ocean4Biotech videos were presented as well, all videos can be found on Ocean4Biotech YouTube channel.

Paldies, Riga!