Speaker

About the speaker:

Madalena is a GreenCoLAB researcher since 2019 based at the company ALGAplus, where she is a PhD student, lab and maternity technician. Madalena has been working with seaweeds for the last six years and now she is mainly focused on the field of biobanking, strain improvement and domestication of novel species. Although her interest for seaweeds is extensive, she is currently dedicated to the cultivation and characterization of Atlantic Nori species.

Company info:

GreenCoLAB - GreenCoLab is a non-profit private organization, a collaborative platform between research and industry, whose research & innovation agenda is based on the exploration of micro- and macroalgae as an essential component for the food, feed, nutraceutical, bioenergy, wastewater and cosmetic industries.

ALGAplus - Production and Trading of Seaweed and Derived Products Ltd - initiated its activity in 2012, and produces customized seaweed and seaweed-based products mainly the B2B food and well-being markets, but also reaching the B2C (retail) in Portugal. ALGAplus seaweed are organic certified and traceable, sustainably produced under the Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) concept, with a strong focus on R&D and continuous support to customers. All seaweed production phases are carried out in-house: biomass production in a land-based modular IMTA system, processing (washing, drying, cutting, milling) and packaging. The main species in production are Ulva sp. (Sea lettuce), Porphyra dioica and P. umbilicalis (Atlantic Nori), Codium tomentosum (Velvet fingers) and Gracilaria gracilis (Ogonori), and Palmaria palmata (Dulse) in R&D phase.

Presentation:

In Europe, ALGAplus is the only company farming year round, organic certified Atlantic Nori species (Porphyra umbilicalis and P. dioica) for food and cosmetic purposes using a sustainable integrated multitrophic system (IMTA). In this presentation we will overview the production of Atlantic Nori and it’s challenges as well as ongoing R&D work towards the selection, improvement and characterization of strains.

Keywords: 

IMTA, Atlantic Nori, biobanking