Bluetools

🌊🍎 How can marine organisms improve the way we produce and preserve food? Through the BLUETOOLS project, researchers are exploring natural compounds from the ocean that could make our food systems safer, healthier, and more sustainable. Small molecules from marine sources can help prevent food spoilage. Polysaccharides improve texture and extend shelf life. Some genes may even help crops survive harsh conditions. Marine biodiversity holds surprising potential for food innovation. Curious? Find out more on our website: https://lnkd.in/dTZSJ89G #FoodSystems #Sustainable #Biotechnology #BlueEconomy #MarineOrganisms #Bluetools #NaturalCompounds

🌊💊The ocean is full of organisms with the potential to transform medicine. Researchers in BLUETOOLS are studying them to find new antibiotics for drug‑resistant infections, compounds with anticancer properties and enzymes that make drug production cleaner and more efficient. Using metagenomics, artificial intelligence and high‑throughput screening, they search for natural compounds that could lead to the next generation of treatments. #drugdevelopment #pharmaceuticals #biotechnology #blueeconomy

🔬 New research from our Bluetools partners at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, in collaboration with groups from Japan, Spain, the Czech Republic, and Germany, reveals how some marine archaea can capture energy from a broader range of sunlight. The study, published in Nature Microbiology, focuses on HeimdallRs, light-sensitive proteins found in Candidatus Kariarchaeaceae, a group of planktonic Asgard archaea. These proteins work together with pigments from the environment to extend the range of usable light, offering new insight into how these microorganisms adapt to sunlit ocean waters. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gQY88dq3 #MarineArchaea #MarineMicrobes #Rhodopsins #GeneticAnalysis

🪸Some marine organisms host microbial communities that produce powerful natural compounds used for defense, communication, and regulating their balance within the host. BLUETOOLS is studying Mediterranean corals and ascidians (sea squirts) to explore these microbes and the molecules they produce. Many have potential as antimicrobials, antitumor agents, or anti-fouling compounds. #MarineMicrobiomes #BlueBioeconomy #HEU #Antimicrobial

You missed our webinar on "Digital sequence information, access and benefit sharing and open science"? No worries, the recording of the webinar are now available. You can rewatch it here: 🖥️ https://lnkd.in/e3UGdp8p #Biocatalysis #MicrobiomeResearch #NagoyaProtocol #Sequencing #OpenScience

Some of the most promising microbes come from extreme environments, where they face intense UV, dryness, salt, and temperature shifts, and evolve unique survival strategies. BLUETOOLS is exploring hypersaline lakes in the Andes and rocky shores along the Atlantic and Mediterranean to study how microbial communities adapt to these extreme conditions and how those strategies could inspire solutions across science and industry. What is BLUETOOLS doing? ✔️ Searching for genes that help microbes survive UV and desiccation ✔️ Investigating viruses for enzymes that break down biofilms ✔️ Exploring how these findings can support anti-fouling, plastic degradation, and more #BlueBioeconomy #HEU #MarineBiology #Biotechnology #Microbiome

Bluetools Sampling Environments: Waste Environments As part of our BLUETOOLS series on sampling environments, we’re kicking off with "waste environments". BLUETOOLS is exploring areas like the Mar Menor Lagoon in Spain, Posidonia seagrass banquettes, and contaminated sites in the UK. These “waste environments” are home to resilient microbes that have adapted to harsh conditions like pollution, heavy metals, and nutrient overload. What is BLUETOOLS doing? ✔️ Studying how microbes deal with pollution ✔️ Finding enzymes that break down waste ✔️ Discovering natural compounds that could be used in cosmetics, medicine, or cleaning up the environment By studying these environments, BLUETOOLS is discovering new possibilities for science, industry, and sustainable innovation. #BlueBioeconomy #HEU #MarineBiology #Cleantech #Microbiome

🌊 Happy World Oceans Day 2025 This year’s theme “Wonder: Sustaining What Sustains Us” reminds us of the invisible potential held in just a single drop of ocean water. Marine microbes produce half of the oxygen we breathe, regulate ecosystems, store carbon, clean pollution, and may even hold the key to tomorrow’s medicines. BLUETOOLS is developing innovative tools to explore the ocean microbiome sustainably, unlocking its potential for climate resilience, green chemistry, and a thriving blue #Bioeconomy. We're sustaining what sustains us. 👉 Swipe through our #WorldOceansDay carousel to discover how the ocean microbiome sustains life on Earth. #MarineBiology #Microbiome #Sustainability

🎉 A big congratulations to our colleagues at SINTEF on their 75th anniversary! Yesterday marked the grand celebration of this incredible milestone, and we're proud to take part in the festivities. As part of the jubilee, SINTEF was hosting a “SINTEF safari” — an opportunity for different institutes to explore each other’s labs and learn more about the cutting-edge research happening across the organisation. Our partner Anna Lewin was available at one of the safari stations — the molecular genetics lab — and was embracing the chance to among other things share the fascinating work they are doing in the BLUETOOLS project. 🌊 #SINTEF75 #BLUETOOLS #MarineBiotechnology #AntibioticDiscovery #Innovation

🧬 A recent study from Bluetools partners at CSIC-INTA and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, published in Scientific Reports, sheds light on queuosine (Q) as a regulator of gene expression. Q is a molecule of bacterial origin that eukaryotes cannot produce themselves. It’s a modified nucleoside in tRNA, and while it acts on just one codon type, its influence cascades across the genome. Using bioinformatics, the team identified Q-sensitive genes involved in critical functions like DNA repair, splicing, cell cycle control, and metabolism, revealing a unifying mechanism behind Q’s wide-ranging physiological effects in organisms from fruit flies to humans. Q-modified tRNAs (Q-tRNAs) may regulate a wide range of processes critical to carcinogenesis, including ubiquitination, ER stress and the unfolded protein response (UPR), cell adhesion, proliferation, splicing, phosphatidylinositol metabolism, and DNA repair. The study suggests that Q depletion could disrupt these pathways, contributing to cancer progression by altering Akt activation and p53 expression in human cells.  It also highlights queuosine’s potential relevance in neurological function and disease. Since eukaryotes rely entirely on bacteria to obtain Q, this work establishes a link between microbiome composition and gene regulation and makes a strong case for considering queuosine an essential nutrient. 📖 Read more: https://lnkd.in/e4KZyVpW #Microbiome #CancerResearch #Bioinformatics #QtRNA #DNA #ProteinResponse