Acronym INVITEST
Category
Marine Biotechnology
Title In vitro models for additives testing: towards the improvement of sustainable aquaculture Programme National Programme
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National Coordinator Encarnación Capilla Coordinator email NA
Coordinator institution
UB - University of Barcelona (Spain)
Institutions involved
NA
Start year 2021 End year 2023 Funding (€) € 126,500 Website NA Summary In recent decades, an elevated demand for high-quality ingredients alternative to fishmeal and fish oil for inclusion in fish feeds has accompanied the global expansion of the aquaculture industry. Nowadays, there is an increasing interest in the use of food additives to improve substituted and more sustainable diets, existing a great variety of bioactive compounds that have beneficial properties beyond their role as nutrients. To test these potential feed additives, the production enterprises need to perform in vivo growth trials that are nor cost neither time effective.
The proposal for proof of concept INVITEST is the knowledge or know-how on primary culture models of fish cells as an efficient screening tool to test the direct effects of bioactive compounds to be included as potential additives in fish feeds. Besides, we include a complementary in vitro approach to evaluate the effects of these potential additives on growth stimulation by the secretion of insulin-like growth factors (ifgs). The aim is to provide the market with a technological package of in vitro tools that will permit to screen many products/additives simultaneously to make a preselection of compounds, with low expenses on animals, installations and at shorter times.
One of our strengths is the possibility to use at once four different fish cell types, important for the final growth and quality of the fish, as they are adipocytes, osteoblasts, myocytes, and hepatocytes. With this approach, we will investigate the response to a particular product by the specific tissues of interest, analyzing a wide array of end-point measurements such as toxicity, proliferative or differentiating effects, activation of lipid synthesizing pathways, or the oxidative stress status of the cells. This technological package will permit us to identify the beneficial properties of the possible additives acting as growth stimulators, anti-obesogenic factors or antioxidants.
The activities related to the valorization and adjustment of the technological package to the specificity of the products to be tested according to industry needs, include first, the definition of the various intellectual property rights strategies for the identified knowledge or know-how. A thorough study will be performed to decide how it should be protected and devise the appropriate exploitation approach.
Once we have defined the standardized technological package according to the nature of the compounds to be tested, a market analysis and commercialization plan will be elaborated. Our group of research has already initiated collaboration with various companies in the fish feeds production field interested in being costumers of the developed technology. Altogether, we can offer a high level of analytical services to private stakeholders related to animal feeding and production. The research team envisages a potential scenario for transferring the results of the project through the creation of a spin-off company thus, a business plan will be elaborated. Overall, this proof of concept proposal implies the evolution of our previous collaborations with animal feed companies, towards a more complete transfer of our scientific experience for the benefit and sustainability of the aquaculture sector.
Keywords
Fish oil replacement;
Feed composition;
Technology;
Bioactive compounds;
Fish meal replacement;
Marine Region
76
Not associated to marine areas
0
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