Professor Marcel Jaspars’ main expertise is in the discovery, characterization and utilization of useful products and processes from marine genetic resources. This forms the core of the marine bio-discovery pipeline, and Marcel has frequent contact with people operating at all stages of this pipeline, from the collection and identification of the organisms to their testing in whole animal models. Marcel has been active at national and international levels to develop the science, its applications/industrial uptake and associated policy involved in marine bio discovery and biotechnology. Marcel founded the interdisciplinary Marine Bio-discovery Center at the University of Aberdeen in 2010, a £2.5 M investment to focus on marine bio-resources for novel pharmaceuticals, From 2012-2017 Marcel provided scientific leadership for the PharmaSea EU consortium which aimed to make the use of marine microbial derived compounds a more attractive proposition to the pharmaceutical industry and resulted in 3 families of molecules successfully completing animal trials for epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease. Since 2014 Marcel has been involved in the BBNJ process, providing scientific input and co-authoring the Mare Geneticum proposal which provides building blocks based on good scientific practice towards a solution for the MGR aspects of the BBNJ process.
Marcel Jaspar
Professor Marcel Jaspars’ main expertise is in the discovery, characterization and utilization of useful products and processes from marine genetic resources. This forms the core of the marine bio-discovery pipeline, and Marcel has frequent contact with people operating at all stages of this pipeline, from the collection and identification of the organisms to their testing in whole animal models. Marcel has been active at national and international levels to develop the science, its applications/industrial uptake and associated policy involved in marine bio discovery and biotechnology. Marcel founded the interdisciplinary Marine Bio-discovery Center at the University of Aberdeen in 2010, a £2.5 M investment to focus on marine bio-resources for novel pharmaceuticals, From 2012-2017 Marcel provided scientific leadership for the PharmaSea EU consortium which aimed to make the use of marine microbial derived compounds a more attractive proposition to the pharmaceutical industry and resulted in 3 families of molecules successfully completing animal trials for epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease. Since 2014 Marcel has been involved in the BBNJ process, providing scientific input and co-authoring the Mare Geneticum proposal which provides building blocks based on good scientific practice towards a solution for the MGR aspects of the BBNJ process.