Oxycal Bluetech

The calcium sign, and especially calcium channels, are involved in many cellular processes and their deregulation was shown as one of the reasons of numerous pathologies such as cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases, cancer or serious genetic disorders. The activation of many membrane receptors lead to the mobility of calcium ions (Ca²+) used as a second intercellular messenger. It was recently demonstrated that the STM1 protein, main actor in regulation of calcium channels, also has sensor capacities of numerous cellular stress such as oxidative stress. The link between oxidative stress and calcium sign disruption is therefore clearly established just as the consequences of these deregulations.
Sectors of Activity:
Marine biotechnology
Objective:
The aim of this cross-sectorial project OXYCAL-Bluetech, interfacing with Sea and Health sectors, is to identify new natural antioxidant substances coming from marine origin, which are able to modulate the calcium sign of tumourous cells.
Beneficiaries:
Universities and Research centres
Main activities:
Marine extracts will be provided by the BIODIMAR platform (LEMAR/UBO, University of Brest), which has developed a high expertise in marine and land biomass treatment, extraction, fragmentation of obtained extracts and biomolecules analysis. Calcium channels are measured at UMR Inserm 1078 laboratory, following the variation of intercellular calcium concentration thanks to a fluorescent probe on a Multi-Mode Microplate Reader such as Flexstation (Molecular Devices).
Main deliverables:
At the end of this screening program, we shall identify antioxidant raw extracts from marine biomass and able to modulate calcium channels of B. leukemic cells. The next phases will be the purification of the most promising bioactive extracts. By bioguided subdivision, we will try to isolate bioactive molecules in order to identify and understand precisely the cell mechanism and to be able to apply them on others cancers. The implementation of such a collaborative project would allow to reinforce the Sea / Health axis and therefore to identify research/transfer methodologies for innovative molecules.
Partners needed:
Skills required in the partnership: - Synthetic molecules - Coupling of molecules (ex fluorophores) - Modelling of molecules (bio-informatic) - Binding - Study of ion channels - Purveyor of antioxydant marine extracts or antioxidant purified marine molecules (from: seaweeds, fishes, shells, marine microorganism, halophyte plants) - Biomass supplier. - Oxydative and pathology stress
Geographical target area:
Europe
Countries:
France
Ireland
Portugal
Spain
United Kingdom
Name of Organisation: Université de Bretagne Occidentale
Country: France
Contact person: 
Olivier Mignen
Email: