EU Research Project "Nano3Bio" is Starting – "Huge Potential" through Biotechnology - Heppe Medical Chitosan is part of the international consortium

While the oil is slowly but surely running out, renewable resources are becoming increasingly important. In future, the biological production of raw materials has to play an even greater role to meet the needs in an environmentally friendly manner. An international consortium of researchers and companies, including your organisation, now rises to this challenge. Its goal is the biotechnological production of so-called chitosans, which are used as raw materials for medicine, agriculture, water treatment, cosmetics, paper and textile industries as well as many other fields of application. To tap this potential, the European Commission supports the research project "Nano3Bio" with a total of almost 9 million Euros up to 2017.

In addition to the experts from your organisation, universities and research institutes as well as companies from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, India, The Netherlands, Spain and Sweden are involved. They recently met to kick off the project in Münster, Germany.

"The Nano3Bio project is making a scientific dream come true, because this strong consortium will be able to achieve a breakthrough from basic research to the biotechnological production of chitosans", says Professor Dr. Bruno Moerschbacher, biologist at the University of Münster and coordinator of the project. So far, chitosans are typically obtained by chemical means from limited resources such as the shells of crabs and shrimps, or, rarely, from fungi or squid pens. Within the biotechnological process, specially prepared fungi, bacteria or algae are to take over the production of chitosans.

One hope of the researchers is that this will be energy-saving, more environmentally friendly and less expensive than using current methods. But equally important is the replacement of chemical methods by biological ones which will lead to more natural and better defined chitosans than available today. Moerschbacher: "Succeeding would be a great success, including huge economic potential." But the road is challenging: For example, it is important to determine which biological organisms are able to produce exactly that quality of chitosan, which is required for a specific application.

The biochemical quality of chitosans is at least as diverse as their applications. For example, one specific chitosan is suitable for finishing seeds to protect them from pests and diseases, and to yield richer harvests. Another one is acting as anti-bacterial, film-forming agent in spray plaster accelerating scar-free wound healing. In medical applications, specific chitosans can ensure the transport of drugs to their target sites, e.g. in the brain or in cancer cells. Furthermore, the researchers assume that many other fields of application will be found in which a specific chitosan can replace or support other substances. For many applications, this is a highly promising prospect since one of the good qualities of chitosans lies in the fact that they are well tolerated by the human body and easily biodegradable in the environment.

If you want to learn more about the Nano3Bio project you can check the respective project website Nano3Bio