MARBLES partner receives new funding to further investigate marine sponges

MARBLES’ partner, Detmer Sipkema from Wageningen University, has been awarded an ENW-M grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for innovative, fundamental research. Thanks to this grant, worth over €400,000, Detmer's research team will be able to further investigate a method to produce medicines and other bioactive compounds in sponge cells.

In 2023, Detmer, along with other researchers, had already created the foundation with the establishment of the first continuous marine sponge cell line, a remarkable breakthrough as explained by Sipkema: “For the first time, we can keep sponge cells alive for extended periods in the lab, (…) That allows us to do something that was simply not possible before: cultivating sponges for their valuable compounds.”

The researchers will start by working with barrettide, a small protein from the Arctic sponge Geodia barretti that helps stop bacteria from forming protective layers, will serve as a model for determining whether it is possible to get the sponge cells to reliably produce high-value compounds.

The researchers will explore two strategies:

• Triggering production with external stimuli, such as exposure to bacteria or bacterial fragments.
• Activating key genes using CRISPR‑Cas, focusing on “master regulators” that switch on entire biochemical pathways.

More information here.