(11-24 june 2010)
MAMBA aims & objectives
MAMBA stands for "Marine Metagenomics for New Biotechnological Applications", a small collaborative project to mine for and use of new microbial activities, in particular for targeted production of fine chemicals, antioxidants and anti-cancer drugs. This Project builds up on the previous efforts of European Framework Programs and National research initiatives for exploiting the catalytic activities of marine microorganisms and microbial communities and to gain the new knowledge on the mechanisms of survival of living organisms in extreme environments. The three major objectives of this project therefore will be:(1) to build up a consortium encompassing: (a) the state-of-the-art facilities and expertise to sample unique and hardly accessible marine environments, (ii) advanced technology for construction of metagenomic libraries, (iii) modern sequencing, sequence annotation and the cutting-edge bioinformatics resources, (iv) high-end activity screening technology, (v) world-class protein crystallization and structural analysis facilities and (vi) companies with solid market positions in biocatalysis, drug discovery and cosmetics production.
(2) to deliver a series of new biocatalytic processes, new lead products with anti-tumor activities and new solutes and antioxidant compounds within the project timeframe.
(3) to reveal the new mechanisms of the functioning of extreme marine microbial consortia, their contribution to the global element cycling and possible impact of their activities on the global climate patterns, and, not least, the genomic basis of niche specificities that allow microbes to thrive in the extreme marine environments.
MAMBA 2010 team
The participant of sea experiment: Michail Yakimov (IAMC-CNR Messina, Chief of Expedition); Erika Arcadi, Simone Cappello, Violetta La Cono, Gina La Spada, Giovanna Maimone, Luis Monticelli, Elvira Oliveri, Francesco Smedile (IAMC-CNR Messina); Mireno Borghini, Donato Giovannelli (ISMAR-CNR La Spezia); Gioacchino Ruggeri (University of Messina); Stephane L’Haridon, Marie Roumagnac (IFREMER); Natasha Brecht, Maria Pachiadaki (Technische Universitat Kaiserslautern); Manuel Ferrer (CSIC Espana); Marco Paulo Barroso Taborda (BIOCANT Portugal); Peter N. Golyshin (University of Bangor, UK).