About the project
NATPROTEC is an FP7 research project (IAPP- Marie Curie actions) that aims to discover and carry to the stage of development innovative products in the area of cosmeceuticals originating from European natural resources using emerging and environmentally friendly technologies. These objectives will be implemented through an extended and balanced scheme of researchers’ exchanges and recruitments, via a mutual scientific project developed on the needs and interests of both Industry and Academia sectors.
More specifically, the NATPROTEC scientific concept involves the discovery of novel natural products (NPs) originating from the Mediterranean and Alpine biodiversity. Already existing chemical libraries will be exploited incorporating modern high throughput platforms (in silico & in vitro) for the rational and targeted selection of the optimum natural sources. Advanced analytical approaches and techniques will be applied for the efficient, accelerated and advantageous isolation and identification procedures of natural constituents as well as the quality assessment of the lead products. A broad spectrum of bioassays and novel analytical approaches will be incorporated for the evaluation of skin-protecting, anti-ageing and anti-hyperpigmenting activity of all derived products. Attention will be given to the selection of the optimum source of the biomaterial to ensure sustainability and into the development, optimisation and application of novel, “green” technologies for the production of the final lead products. Within this frame, core scientific knowledge and lead compounds for further development are expected to be produced creating valuable synergies.
A major objective of the NATPROTEC is to allow expertise to be transferred by means of the seconded researchers training and recruited researchers experience in environments with different dynamics and orientation where other skills are required, between academic partners and industry and to provide, long-lasting collaboration between Industry and Academia for sustainable exploitation of existing know-how and produced knowledge.
The objectives of the project are supported by the expertise and diversity of the consortium. The NATPROTEC consortium brings together experts who are individually considered as world leaders in their respective areas. All partners share a common interest for research on new nature-derived molecular entities, their properties, and the possibility of development of new industrial procedures and marketable products.
More specifically, in the frame of NATPROTEC project, a high-calibre network has been established including European academic entities and industrial partners. National and Kapodistrian University (Greece), University of Geneva (Switzerland), University of Innsbruck (Austria) and University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne (France) are Universities with documented high quality research activity in the field of Natural Products.