Sponge natural products

Svampdjuren (phylum Porifera)

Description

Our group is investigating the chemistry and biology of possibly the earliest animals to appear on our planet: sponges (phylum Porifera).

Sponges represent today about 9,200 species, of which 161 species are found in Swedish waters and probably more than 300 species in Norwegian waters. Sponges occur worldwide, from the tropics to polar regions, from shallow waters to the abyss. In addition to being important models to understand the evolution of animals, sponges are unquestionably the leading source of new marine compounds, with 200 new sponge metabolites discovered each year.

Using various sources of data such as secondary metabolites, morphology and genetics/genomics, our lab studies the evolution of these animals and aims at discovering sponge natural products, to understand why and how they are produced, and if that could lead to new drugs.

Sponges 2016-2020

Sponge grounds are among the most diverse, ecologically and biologically important marine ecosystems of the deep-sea, and yet they have so far received very little research attention.

We are now part of a large EU funded H2020 consortium to investigate deep-sea North Atlantic sponge grounds (i.e. sponge-dominated communities).

The main goal of the project SponGES is to develop an integrated ecosystem-based approach to preserve and sustainably use deep-sea sponge ecosystems of the North Atlantic.

Coordinator: University of Bergen, Norway (Prof. Hans Tore Rapp).
Co-coordinators: Florida Atlantic University, USA (Prof. Shirley Pomponi) and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (Prof. Ellen Kenchington)
Consortium: 18 EU, USA and Canadian partners
Timeframe: 4 years (March 2016 – February 2020)

Our group at Uppsala University, will further explore the metabolic diversity of the main sponges from north Atlantic sponge grounds, combined with genomic, transcriptomic and metagenomic data.

Sponge biodiversity and chemodiversity in Sri Lanka (2018-2021)

VR linkage grant Sweden-Sri Lanka (PI: Dr. Sunithi Gunasekera).

"Biodiversity and Chemodiversity of Sri Lankan marine sponges, an opportunity to explore new pharmaceutical applications”.

Timeframe: 3 years (June 2018 – June 2021)

Dr. Chamari Hettiarachchi (Dept. of Chemistry, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka) is our International Collaborating scientist.
Dr. Prabath Jayasinghe (National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency, NARA, Colombo, Sri Lanka) is an associated partner that will support this project.
This grant will fund two PhD students from the University of Colombo (and their visits to Uppsala University): Jayani Gamage and Lakmini Kosgahakumbura.

The aims of this project are to 1) transfer our knowledge on sponge sytematics to Sri Lankan students/researchers in order to help them assess the Sri Lankan sponge biodiversity and 2) develop a protocol to study sponge natural product and genetic diversity. We believe both of these aims will unlock the potential of Sri Lankan sponges towards bioactive assays and drug discovery. To achieve this we will conduct a multidisciplinary collaborative project combining our mutual expertise in pharmacognosy, chemistry, structure elucidation, systematics and molecular biology. This project will fill the knowledge gap on Sri Lankan sponge biodiversity in order to spur high-standard sponge research in this country. The findings will contribute to Sri Lankan education, marine biodiversity conservation and economic development but also to the Swedish/Sri Lankan drug discovery program.

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