Searching for buried treasure: extraction of high-value pharmaceutical ingredients from seaweed fertiliser and waste

Introduction:

The use of seaweed as a raw material is a rapidly growing area with enormous commercial potential. Unlike conventional land-based sources or fossil-fuels, seaweed acts as a carbon sink and does not require land, water or fertiliser to grow. With Central Pharma Biotechnica Limited (Biotechnica), this PhD aims to develop a cost-effective route to bio-produce high-value ingredients including phlorotannins (antivirals), fucoidans (digestive health) and alginates (pharmaceutical materials) from harvested seaweed. Currently, the raw seaweed is treated with water to produce a highly complex mixture of polysaccharides, polyphenols, metal ions and small molecules that is marketed as a liquid fertiliser. The remainder of the seaweed material (> 60% by weight) is discarded as solid waste.

Methodology:

You will join a highly multidisciplinary team led by Dr Matthew Wallace in the School of Chemistry, Pharmacy and Pharmacology. Here, you will be trained in advanced solid, solution and gel-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), analytical chemistry and materials characterisation. You will develop robust protocols to reveal the composition of Biotechnica’s algal materials and sustainable procedures for their rapid quantification and separation. Working with Professor Jon Todd in the School of Biological Sciences, you will investigate the use of microbes that naturally live on the surface of seaweed to control the polymer chain length and other properties of the seaweed-derived ingredients.

Training:

You will receive exceptional training at UEA, and on placement with Biotechnica, in molecular biology, fermentation, analytical chemistry, industrial networking and in writing publications and IP protection. You will learn good laboratory practice, present your findings at weekly team meetings, high-profile international scientific conferences, and in peer-reviewed scientific publications and your PhD thesis.

Person specification:

We require a committed and self-reliant student keen to succeed at this highly multidisciplinary project. Experience in NMR, microbiology or materials characterisation is desirable but not essential.

References

M. Wallace, J. Holroyd, A. Kuraite and H. Hussain, “Does it bind? A method to determine the affinity of calcium and magnesium ions for polymers using 1H NMR spectroscopy”, Analytical Chemistry, 2022, 94, 10976–10983. DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.2c01166

S. Monaco, J. Angulo and M. Wallace, “Imaging Saturation Transfer Difference (STD) NMR: Affinity and Specificity of Protein−Ligand Interactions from a Single NMR Sample”, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2023, 145, 16391-16397. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.3c02218

J. Wang, A. R. J. Curson, S. Zhou, O. Carrión, J. Liu, A. R. Vieira, K. S. Walsham, S. Monaco, C. Y. Li, Q. Y. Dong, Y. Wang, P. P. L. Rivera, X. D. Wang, M. Zhang, L. Hanwell, M. Wallace, X. Y. Zhu, P. N. Leão, D. J. Lea-Smith, Y. Z. Zhang, X. H. Zhang and J. D. Todd, “Alternative dimethylsulfoniopropionate biosynthesis enzymes in diverse and abundant microorganisms”, Nature Microbiology, 2024, 9, 1979-1992. DOI: 10.1038/s41564-024-01715-9