Ostrecoccus tauri from Research to Industry: A microalgal factory for the development and production of higher value-added compounds for well-being, food and health industries. – OTARI

Summary
Microalgae are a highly diverse bio-resource and feature a large variety of value-added compounds, which remains almost untapped today. For example, long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (Omega 3), carotenoids pigments and exopolysaccharides are started to be used in food, cosmetics and health industries but challenges remains to reach their full potential of use. Besides, many other compounds of economic interest have been recently identified in microalgae. The full economic valorization of these compounds requires to knock down two main technical barriers: the selection of microalgae lines overexpressing the compound(s) of interest and the high scale industrial culture of these lines in closed and controlled photobioreactors.
To overcome these challenges, the OTARI labcom project will associate two highly complementary partners recognized by the academic and industrial communities. The laboratory of microbial oceanography lab, UMR7621 Université Pierre et Marie Curie and CNRS has a unique expertise in the selection and genetic engineering and has developed and patented a microalgal system of expression. Microphyt is a company which has developed original photobioreactors at pilot and industrial scales for the production of microalgae. The objective of OTARI is to develop and implement a microalgae factory for the production of value-added coumpounds for well-being, food and health industries.