Mw.ir. M. (Marieke) Koopmans: “Growth and metabolism of sponges”

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2 Oct 2009 13:30
Unit: Wageningen University
Location: Aula, building 362, Gen. Foulkesweg 1, Wageningen
Organisation: Wageningen University
Promotor: prof.dr.ir. R.H. Wijffels (Bioprocess Engineering)
Co Promotor: Dr.ir. D.E. Martens

 SPONGES, simple but fascinating organisms! For their defence mechanism they produce amazing chemicals that appear to be valuable as human drugs. How do sponges produce these drugs and why and when exactly? Can we stimulate these organisms to produce what we want? Just few of the many questions that keep sponge-researchers busy.
At Wageningen University we started to explore the possibilities of stimulating sponge growth and metabolism in their natural environment. Sponges grow faster at higher temperatures, which corresponds to higher biomass in the sea. Metabolism is quite slow, food taken up by sponges is converted to other material still three weeks after take up. However, when sponge tissue is damaged there regeneration rate is faster than growth rate. To be able to produce sponge medicine, more knowledge is necessary about metabolite production and induction in the sponge.
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