Lessonia, a French manufacturer of skin care ingredients and formulations, is participating in the EU-funded GENIALG (GENetic diversity exploitation for Innovative macro-ALGal biorefinery) project, which aims to boost the so-called “Blue Biotechnology Economy” by increasing the production and sustainable exploitation of two high-yielding species of the EU seaweed biomass: the brown alga Saccharina latissima and the green algae Ulva spp.
GENIALG is a large-scale project: 23 million euros of research over four years and 19 European partners from academic research but also industrials. [1]
Ten European research centres are going to collaborate for this program, opening new perspectives for Lessonia, especially within the reinforcement of its expertise in marine glycobiology. “GENIALG not only will provide to Lessonia an access to academic research laboratories’ technologies, but also will enable to study a multitude of molecules from algae, with potential cosmetic activities,” explains the company.
The participation of the French company in this project is aligned with the collaboration already which has been set for two years with the biological station of Roscoff and that have already enabled a technology transfer on enzymatic hydrolyze of algae polysaccharides. Lessonia will showcase an innovative active ingredient born from this collaboration will be put on the market during the next in-cosmetics exhibition in London.
