Centre of Applied Marine Biotechnology

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5th European Conference on Marine Natural Products (September 2007)

Three CAMBio researchers, Dr. John Slater, Dr. Wolfram Brück and Dr. Maria Hayes attended the 5th European Conference on Marine Natural Products held from 16-21st September 2007 on the island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples, Italy.

Conference chair, Dr. Angelo Fontana from CNR-Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry ensured that the Conference continued the focus on aspects of marine natural products research which had developed in the previous four meetings held in Athens, Santiago de Compostela, Munich and Paris.

A comparison of bacterial diversity associated with azooxanthellate hexacorals and octocorals, research initiated by Wolfram whilst in Florida and completed at CAMBio was presented at the Conference. This research project was undertaken in collaboration with Harbour Branch Oceanographic Institution, Fort Pierce, Florida; Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida and the University of Prince Edward Island Canada. Overall the Conference activities embraced different aspects of marine natural products research ranging from the isolation and structural elucidation of secondary metabolites, biodiversity and chemical ecology, modern analytical methods, biosynthesis and molecular aspects, chemical synthesis and bioprospecting. Opportunities to share multidisciplinary information between the 180 chemists, marine and molecular biologists, biochemists, ecologists, pharmacologists and those in related areas were plentiful.

Given the enormous economic importance of marine habitats, the main aim of the Conference was to encourage research on the basic and applied aspects of marine natural products including their role in marine ecosystem functioning, the development of research tools devoted to defence and conservation of marine environments and applications within the pharmaceutical, cosmaceutical and marine aquaculture industries.