The Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMCAS) participated in the EU PharmaSea project on Deep-sea Organisms to discover synergistic medicines from their own proprietary marine microbial natural products library. The project was reported by BBC News on February 15, 2013.

The four–year, €9.5 million (~80 million RMB) research project focuses on biodiscovery research and the development and commercialization of new bioactive compounds from marine organisms, including deep-sea sponges and bacteria. Worldwide scientists will join hands to collect and screen samples of mud and sediment from huge, previously untapped, oceanic trenches.

Researchers in IMCAS will develop and improve a series of High Throughput Screening bioassays against Mycobacterium phlei, Mycobacterium smegmetis, drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv and Candida albicans, and synergistic activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv and Candida albicans. Through these high-throughput manners, the new drug discovery efficiency from deep sea will be greatly raised.

The collaborative project will bring European and Chinese researchers to some of the deepest, coldest and hottest places in the ocean. Marine organisms that live more than 2,000 meters below the sea level are considered to be an interesting source of novel bioactive compounds as they survive under extreme conditions.

The international team will employ strategies commonly used and newly developed to combat the problems caused by the new and drug resistant pathogens.