The University of Malta recently hosted the second Steering Committee of the BYTHOS (Biotechnologies for Human Health and Blue Growth) project, funded within the framework of the Interreg Italia-Malta 2014-2020 Operational Programme I. The project, which formally kicked off in June 2018, brings together six partners from Sicily and Malta, with the Maltese partners being the University of Malta, the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture and the SME Aquabiotech Limited. The Steering Committee was formally opened by Pro-Rector Prof. Godfrey Baldacchino and by the Fisheries Director-General Dr. Andreina Fenech-Farrugia.
Prof. Alan Deidun, resident academic at the Department of Geosciences within the Faculty of Science, is lead investigator for the University on such a project, being assisted in the project implementation by Dr. Marion Zammit Mangion from the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. The main aim of the project is the isolation of BAMs (Biologically Active Molecules, such as collagen, for which there is a high market demand) from waste fish biomass which is normally discarded. Such waste fish biomass could originate from bycatch, from the processing of fish sold at markets, restaurants and shops or even from the offal (the interns of butchered animals) of caged fish. Yet another objective of this project is the identification of less polluting feeds for aquaculture as well as the development of BYTHOS labs where the laboratory processes involved in the extraction of BAMs could be showcased to potential investors. The project runs till the end of May 2021.
Prof. Alan Deidun, resident academic at the Department of Geosciences within the Faculty of Science, is lead investigator for the University on such a project, being assisted in the project implementation by Dr. Marion Zammit Mangion from the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. The main aim of the project is the isolation of BAMs (Biologically Active Molecules, such as collagen, for which there is a high market demand) from waste fish biomass which is normally discarded. Such waste fish biomass could originate from bycatch, from the processing of fish sold at markets, restaurants and shops or even from the offal (the interns of butchered animals) of caged fish. Yet another objective of this project is the identification of less polluting feeds for aquaculture as well as the development of BYTHOS labs where the laboratory processes involved in the extraction of BAMs could be showcased to potential investors. The project runs till the end of May 2021.
