. This proposal addresses the system design, engineering, cost analysis, prototype construction, and lab-scale preliminary culture trials for intensive, high-yield culture of marine compound tunicates to yield anticancer and antiviral compounds.
The aim i s to create a reliable, high-yield aquaculture bio-production system which will supply chemically consistent, economical marine natural products from tunicates. The system will be applicable to high-yield culture of other sessile marine invertebrates and their desired secondary metabolites. When expanded into a commercial scale marine pharmaceuticals bio-manufacturing facility, the system could become the source of invertebrate biomass for drug production, especially for compounds that cannot be economically synthesized. During Phase I a commercial prototype will be designed, engineered and costed. In addition, Trididemnum spp. tunicates will be collected from the ocean and stocked into a multi-aquarium experimental system for studying optimal conditions for growth and reproduction. During Phase II, the prototype aquaculture system will be built using a recirculating raceway-type tank in a greenhouse building.The system will be stocked with T. solidum, a Caribbean species from which didemnin-B, an anticancer compound presently in clinical trials, has been isolated. Growth trials will be run for one year to discern growth rates and possible commercial production rates.
