MarPipe (DSB.AD007.139)
Thematic area
Project area
Biomedicina Traslazionale (DSB.AD007)Structure responsible for the research project
Istituto di Biochimica e Biologia Cellulare (IBBC)
Project manager
DONATELLA DE PASCALE
Phone number: 0816132314
Email: d.depascale@ibp.cnr.it
Abstract
MarPipe is a consortium of 11 partners (IBP-CNR, SZN, UiT, UNIABDN, GEOMAR, KULeuven, UCC, eCOAST,
MEDINA, MicroDish, Italbiotec) based in 8 countries (I, N, UK, D, B, IRL, E, NL), including 3 from the nonacademic
sector. We will train 11 ESRs in marine drug-discovery, providing these researchers with unique skills
toward becoming world leaders in this research field and to advance their careers in academia or industry. MarPipe
PhDs will be trained in a programme including training-by-research, joint courses of technical, scientific and
transferrable skills, active participation to public scientific events, and an intense inter-sectoral networking exchange
plan.
Goals
Marine organisms have the capacity to produce a variety of biologically potent natural products, including antibiotic
and anticancer compounds. MarPipe aims at further development of antimicrobial and anticancer lead compounds
originating from a previous EU project (PharmaSea), and will also explore the bioactivity of deep-sea samples
(5000m) collected during the recent Eurofleet-2 project in the sub-Antarctic. The PhD students will thus be involved
in all phases of the drug discovery pipeline, from isolation of new microbial strains to pre-clinical development of lead
compounds. Importantly, they will also be trained to overcome existing bottlenecks in the field, e.g. low yields and
low chemodiversity, isolation of known compounds, toxicity of compounds.
Start date of activity
01/11/2016
Keywords
antimicrobials, extreme environments, marine source
Last update: 06/06/2025