Title: Marine biopolymer applications in aquaculture

Biography:

Marina Paolucci has completed her PhD at the age of 28 years at the Federico II University of Naples, Italy. She spent her postdoc position at the Boston University, Massachusetts, USA, focusing on aquatic animal reproduction. Today, she is full Professor at the University of Sannio, Italy. She has published more than 90 papers in reputed  journals and has been serving as reviewer and an editorial board member of reputed  journals. Her scientific research is mainly devoted to the application of new materials, molecules  and processes in the field of aquatic species farming and management.

Abstract

Marine organisms synthesize a considerable variety of biopolymers, which can be grouped into three main classes: polysaccharides, proteins and nucleic acids. The exploitation of marine biopolymers for industrial and medical purposes is a fast-growing sector of enormous interest, as demonstrated by the increasing number of different types of compounds isolated from aquatic organisms and transformed into profitable products for health applications and food/feed industry. Differently from feed for livestock, feed for aquaculture requires an adequate level of processing to guarantee good stability in water, long enough for animals to consume it. Indeed, some species are grazers and need time to eat the feed offered. Thus, in order to facilitate rearing management, the addition of binders to the feed to meet the different feeding behavior of different species has to be been considered. Binders are essential for the manufacturing of formulated feed, and research is always on the look-out for new solutions based on eco-friendly, sustainable and cost-effective materials. Here we present some applications of natural biopolymers, mainly carbohydrates capable of creating three-dimensional networks or hydrogels that entrap nutrients and are sustainable and biodegradable.