6th Seaweed for Health

Conference

Expected to be scheduled in 2026

Gilles Bedoux

After a PhD in Biological Sciences and a habilitation in Marine and Coastal Sciences, Gilles Bedoux joined the Laboratoire de Biotechnologie et Chimie Marines (LBCM) at the Université Bretagne Sud in 2013. The LBCM, an EMR CNRS 6076 laboratory and member of the Institut Européen de la Mer (IUEM), is a laboratory of 70 researchers and PhD students developing research on biofilms and defense molecules in marine organisms. Brittany as a home base, marine sciences as a universe, this is the credo of Gilles Bedoux, who has directed 9 PhD since 2013 as part of several research projects and international collaborations. In addition to teaching at the Université Bretagne Sud, Gilles specializes in macroalgal metabolite extraction and chemical analysis. The analysis of the wall composition of these organisms, considered as molecular interaction supports in stress adaptation strategies or in biofilm generation, is the central topic of his research. His work focuses mainly on the study of macro-algae wall structure and secondary metabolites, with an emphasis on green chemistry methods. At the same time, partnership research has enabled him to develop innovative extraction and fractionation methods, as well as biological activity evaluation tests for transferable applications in industry. He is editor of special issues of scientific journals (Marine Drugs, Metabolites), author of 54 indexed articles, and 10 book chapters. He is coordinator of national and international research projects.

Linn AnneBjelland Brunborg

Linn Anne Bjelland Brunborg is the Director of the Aquaculture Division, in the applied research institute Nofima in Norway. She holds a PhD in human nutrition from the University of Bergen and Institute of Marine Research, focusing on a broad approach to the health effects of increased seafood intake. Linn Anne held an Associate Professor position at the Institute of Internal Medicine at The University of Bergen in clinical nutrition as a sideline to the researcher position. Since 2012 she has been working in the biggest food producing company in the Nordics, Orkla, with business development, product development, applied research and nutrition among others. The last three years before joining Nofima, she was the CEO of Orkla Ocean AS, a company commercializing seaweed in fast moving consumer goods.

Maria Hayes

Maria Hayes is a senior researcher at Teagasc based in the Food BioSciences Department at Ashtown, Dublin (2008-present time) and is an adjunct Professor at the Technical University of Dublin (TUD) within the School of Food Science and Environmental Health (2024). Her interests include development of functional food and pharma ingredients to prevent health issues including inflammation, hypertension and type-2-diabetes. Her research also looks at the use of by-products and alternative biomass for development of nutritional protein, functional and bioactive ingredients to improve human and animal nutrition and environmental health. She has published two books to date on the use of marine resources for ingredient development (Springer 2012, Wiley 2018)

Leonel Pereira

Leonel Pereira has a degree in Biology (Scientific branch), a PhD in Biology (specialty Cell Biology) and a Habilitation on Biosciences, specialty in Biotechnology, from the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra, where he is currently Associate Professor, and Master's Degree in Biodiversity and Plant Biotechnology Coordinator. In addition to teaching at this university, he is an integrated researcher at CFE - Centre for Functional Ecology: Science for People & Planet. His interests focus mainly on the areas of Marine Biodiversity (algae), Marine Biotechnology (algae bioactive compounds) and Marine Ecology (environmental assessment). He is, since 2008, the author and editor of the electronic publication MACOI - Portuguese Seaweeds Website (http://www.flordeutopia.pt/macoi/), since 2018 he is a member of the editorial board of the scientific journals Marine Drugs an Applied Sciences, he is editor of several special issues of scientific journals (Journal of Applied Phycology, Botanica Marina, Marine Drugs, Applied Sciences) has been editor or author of more than 20 books, author of more than 160 indexed articles, and more than 72 book chapters. He has delivered over a hundred lectures and oral communications at various national and international scientific events. He is coordinator of several national and international research projects. In 1998 he received the Francisco de Holanda Award (Honorable Mention) and, more recently, the Mar Rei D. Carlos Award (18th edition), and winner of the CHOICE Award - outstanding academic title award 2016 - Book title: Edible Seaweeds of the World, CRC Press. It's part of The World's Top 2% Scientists 2022 list released by Universidade of Stanford and Elsevier, and Holds an h-index 34 WoS, h 33 Scopus, and h 37 ResearchGate.