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If your membership is out of date, you can update it here (join us), and if you’d prefer us to be using a newer email address you can let us know here.
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Our member's spotlight features Mike Packer, our former ANZMBS President turned entrepreneur, establishing his own start up, Algavive Limited. (Pictured above)
Mike is a marine biotechnologist with a background in redox biochemistry and cell biology. Mike’s work has centered around using algae, micro- and macro- (rimurimu seaweed), and other aquatic photosynthetic organisms such as cyanobacteria, with the aim to reduce human environmental impact and make the lives of people better.
Mike drove biotechnological uses of algae and led the Cawthron Aquaculture Park algae production unit in Nelson New Zealand until the end of 2022. He has since established Algavive Limited, to consult with and aid industry with biotechnology projects through advice, innovative product ideas, value chain design, project implementation and commercialisation. In addition to working on an algal-based high value product, Algavive is developing an algae production technology aimed at gaps in the market that can be used for both microalgae and small species of rimurimu seaweed on land and for hatchery support.
What got you into Marine Biotechnology?
I’ve always been intrigued by interfaces and the land sea air interface has always been a place I enjoy.
My brother Hugh is ten years my senior and introduced me to rocky shoreline at a very young age through diving and snorkeling on the Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington South Coast, but also as a marine science graduate student himself and then as my stage 1 zoology lab demonstrator, so I am certainly grateful to him for stimulating my curiosity.
I have a bit of a mantra that “interesting things happen at interfaces”, whether this be the intertidal zone, an algal biofilm on the surface of my microbial fuel cells or people of different skills, backgrounds, perspectives, or training interacting to achieve benefits bigger than they can individually.
Can you give us the elevator pitch of a project you are involved in?
Another project I’m helping with is commericalising a technology that can cost-effectively convert biomass to useful products on a very large scale.
My introduction to the technology was for conversion of algae (microalgae and rimurimu seaweed) to biofuels for carbon recycling using algae as an intermediate for capture of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous.
A microalgae demonstration was performed successfully, but since then we’ve also processed two species of kelp. One is the charismatic megaflora of kelp forests native in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia and one of the fastest growing organisms on the planet, Macrocystis pyrifera, the other Undaria pinnatifida, a kelp which is invasive in Australasia.
Further to capture and recycling of nutrients, the technology can also effectively deal with and capture or breakdown problematic waste, such as the toxic salts used for tanalising and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS, PFOS) used in far too many things from firefighting foams to toilet paper!
Any organic material can be processed using the technology, even things like end-of-life tires, which therefore means it can help us achieve circular bioeconomies.
To see Mike's LinkedIn click here
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2024 Summer Student Internship Award
Now Open
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ANZMBS will provide up to two awards per year to student members who wish to undertake an internship in any area of Marine Biotechnology with an approved organisation.
The award includes a one-off payment to student of ~$500 AUS /NZ
For the purposes of this award, an “internship” is defined as a paid or volunteer work or training experience (minimum 2 weeks) in which an individual has intentional learning goals.
Awardee’s will be required to submit a short report of their activities and learnings that will be included in the ANZMBS newsletter.
Closing date is 5th February 2023
For more information and the bio of our previous award recipients click the link below
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13th APMBC and 5th ANZMBS Conference Highlights
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13th APMBC and 5th ANZMBS Conference delegates
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In October we held a successful joint conference with the Asia Pacific Marine Biotechnology Society (APMBS). The 13th APMBC and 5th ANZMBS conference took place in the Adelaide Convention Centre and hosted delegates from over 15 countries and regions, including Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, USA, Indonesia, Switzerland, Netherlands, France, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan.
Over 4 days we heard some excellent talks that really showcased the diversity of research themes that encompass marine biotechnology. The breath and quality of the research presented clearly demonstrate how marine biotechnology continues to make substantial progress in areas of natural product discovery, biomaterials, algal biotechnology, and aquaculture. The conference also highlighted the important role marine biotechnology is playing in supporting the circular economy and in addressing global challenges related to climate change and sustainability.
A special thank you to our 12 Plenary, 30 Keynote speakers who shared their expertise and insights, sparking inspiration and highly technical questions among the audience.
We'd like to thank all 290 delegates as your continued engagement is vital to sustaining the vibrant community we've cultivated. In addition to formal talks and poster sessions the conference held several discussion forums including the Student/ ECR Networking Forum, the Women in Marine Biotechnology Leadership Forum, and the Industry Investment Forum, providing networking opportunities for current and emerging leaders in the marine biotechnology space.
Congratulations to the winners of the APMBS2023 student talks and poster prizes. A special congratulations to Hayley Stent who was awarded the ANZMBS Joe Baker award for the best student talk. A big thank you goes to all the presenters, session chairs and most importantly to the local organisers for such a successful event.
A final thank you to our sponsors; MBCRC, The Government of South Australia, The Department of Primary Industries and Regions, SARDI, Cuddon Freeze Dry, Flinders University, Blue Future Forward Fund, Biomarine, University of Sunshine Coast, Shandong University of Traditional Medicine, FRDC, Frontiers in Marine Sciences
and Taiheiyo Cement.
We invite you to stay connected through our newsletters, LinkedIn and the ANZMBS website for updates, resources, and information about future events, with the next ANZMBS conference to be announced soon.
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There is a call for full papers from presenters from the conference in both Special issue of Frontiers in Marine Science: Marine Biotechnology and Bioproducts and Marine Biotechnology click the link below for more information
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ANZMBS Joe Baker Student Poster Award
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In memory of the late Prof. Joe Baker, a leader in marine biotechnology and a founding member of the ANZMBS. He was a strong advocate of marine biotechnology and particularly supporting young scientists.
On his passing in January 2018, the society agreed to have an ongoing award in his name for the most outstanding student presentation during an ANZMBS conference.
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The ANZMBS Committee selected Hayley Stent for the Joe Baker Student Poster Award. Hayley's talk was titled "Electrospun Salmon Collagen Nanofibres: Crosslinking for Food and Biomedical Applications", her abstract is as follows:
Marine collagen shows promise as a biomaterial for various applications. However, it is highly water-soluble and often requires toxic cross-linking methods to improve stability, making it unsuitable for food and biomedical applications.
This study aimed to fabricate water-stable electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds using denatured collagen from Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) skin and develop non-toxic cross-linking techniques to improve scaffold stability.
Collagen nanofibres were cross linked with ultraviolet light (UV) or thermal treatment with or without fructose, glucose, or citric acid. Free amine assays with 2, 4, 6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid revealed that cross-linking was successful in all treatments. Fibres containing citric acid exhibiting the highest degree of cross-linking and UV treatment demonstrated 4- to 6-fold less cross-linking than other heat-treated methods. FTIR results indicated that citric acid cross-linking affected the chemical composition of collagen nanofibres, while other cross-linking methods did not. Scanning electron microscopy demonstrated the morphology of cross-linked nanofibres was maintained, except for those cross-linked with citric acid.
Scaffolds thermally cross-linked with or without fructose or glucose were chosen for further analysis. All fibres retained their nanofibrous structure and exhibited less than 40% mass loss after 7 days in cell culture conditions. No differences in swelling or biostability were observed between cross-linking treatments.
Overall, this study established that thermal cross-linking with or without the addition of fructose and glucose is an effective non-toxic cross-linking technique for electrospun salmon collagen fibres. These findings hold significant implications for the development of stable marine collagen scaffolds for food and biomedical applications.
Well done Hayley - if you'd like to know more, you can access her LinkedIn here
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ANZMBS Annual AGM for 2023
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The ANZMBS Annual AGM was held 5th October 2023. The minutes are attached below
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Free Journal Access - MBTE Affiliation
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We are happy to announce our continued work with Springer, to grant our members free access to the journal "Marine Biotechnology".
You can now easily gain free access to the journal by logging in to the Member's Only section of our website and selecting "MBTE society affiliation"
Please email anzmarinebiotechnology@gmail.com for your nominations.
If you haven't already - sign up the the Member's Only section of our website -
You can click the link below and create an account using the "Sign Up" button.
You may need to wait 24 hours before logging in, however you can also try to exit and re-open your browser when signing in for the first time.
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Got Marine Biotechnology News to Share?
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We’d love to hear about your work in marine biotechnology and if possible, help to promote it via our website and society social media feeds.
If you have anything you’d like us to share please email us.
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Australia New Zealand Marine Biotechnology Society
anzmarinebiotechnology@gmail.com
https://anzmbs.asn.au/
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