Marine Fungi – Talented source of new drugs from the sea?
Kiel welcomes the world’s leading marine fungal natural product experts
Fungi have played an important role in both ancient and modern biotechnology. Not only products such as the blockbuster antibiotics (e.g. penicillin) or anticancer drugs, alcohols, enzymes, organic acids, also processes such as baking or brewing use fungi. More recently the attention has shifted to fungi from marine environments as excellent theme for cutting edge research and endless applications.
Leading international experts on marine fungi research and their chemical constituents meet at the 2nd International Conference of Marine Natural Fungal Products, which takes place from 27-29 June at the Wissenschaftszentrum in Kiel, Germany. Organized by GEOMAR-Biotech, the integral part of the Research Unit Marine Natural Products Chemistry of GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, the conference focuses on various aspects of marine fungal research, such as biodiversity, cultivability, chemodiversity, genetics and genomics, microbe-microbe interactions, epigenetics, ecology, analytics and metabolomics, as well as the applied topics such as biotechnology and biodiscovery.
The conference stems from the initiative of the MaFNaP Consortium aiming for more systematic research on marine fungi worldwide. Established in 2014, the first inaugural MaFNaP conference was held in 2015 and hosted by the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Nantes (France). Now, the 2nd MaFNaP conference in Kiel hosted by GEOMAR-Biotech aims to promote intensively the scientific exchange initiated in the inaugural conference in Nantes.
“Marine fungi are rising as a great treasure in the forefront of blue biotechnology. They have already played a historical role in medicine. With ever increasing technology and knowledge we have today, they will reshape medicine, agriculture and many other areas critical for human health and life standard. GEOMAR-Biotech is committed to perform world-class research on marine fungi and evaluate their contemporary commercial applications”, says Prof. Dr. Deniz Tasdemir, the organizer of the conference.
“I am delighted to welcome a great scientific community here in Kiel and showcase our capacity and state-of-the-art research activity on marine fungi to the most prominent experts in the field”, Prof. Tasdemir continues. “I expect that the conference will strongly fuel future research collaborations and joint funding applications. It will also evoke interest and networking among young, next generation scientists”.
Contact:
Dr. Andreas Villwock (GEOMAR, Kommunikation & Medien), Tel.: 0431 600-2802, presse(at)geomar.de
