Identification, study and development of molecules and ingredients of marine origin for health and biotechnology

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Marine environments are home to a wide variety of organisms whose physiology has adapted to the biotic and abiotic constraints of their environment, adapting their cellular functioning and producing original primary and/or secondary metabolites. These cellular mechanisms and these compounds, whether they are involved in vital processes or in inter-organism interactions, represent a reservoir of potentially valuable molecules in human, animal and plant health, in cosmetics, in agri-food and more generally in biotechnology. The aim is to take advantage of the knowledge acquired on marine biodiversity, chemical ecology and the cellular mechanisms of marine organisms, to isolate, characterise and develop mechanisms and bioactive substances that can be used to combat certain diseases, families of compounds that are beneficial to human and animal health, or of interest in biotechnology. It is also a question of imagining tomorrow’s biotechnological developments in innovative fields such as biomimetic approaches for the development of biocompatible materials, the emergence of natural products from sustainable approaches, or the fight against biofouling. The identification of fundamental, ancestral and original mechanisms present in marine organisms represents a source of inspiration for mimicking these processes in human health, in the fight against certain metabolic pathologies or cellular disorders, thus accelerating our interface perspectives towards clinical research.