Microalgae in Health and Disease Prevention

Dr. Ira A. Levine, Ph.D. is a tenured Professor of natural and applied sciences at the University of Southern Maine, President and Board Chair of the Algae Foundation, Executive Director of Professors Beyond Borders, and the CEO of Algal Aquaculture Professionals, LLC. Dr. Levine was: selected as the Trustee Professor of University of Southern Maine for 2017–18. He was awarded the U.S. State Department’s distinguished Fulbright New Century Scholar in 2009–10 and Chair Fulbright in 2016–17. He was a visiting Professor of biology at Duke University in 2007–08. Dr. Levine combines 33 years of basic and applied research in physiological ecology and cultivation of algae, algal farm management, and aquaculture engineering. His farming experience includes open-ocean and pond cultivation in Canada, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, and USA (Hawaii, Florida, and Maine). Current efforts include algal cultivar enhancement for biofeeds, human nutraceuticals, and cosmeceuticals, fine chemicals, and algal-based biofuels.

Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Southern Maine, Lewiston, ME, USA

Dr. Joël Fleurence, Ph.D., is a Professor of Marine Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Nantes. He is one of the two Directors of the Research Laboratory “Sea, Molecules, Health.” He is a member of the University National Council since 2007 and was elected President of the section “Biology of organisms” since 2017. He is a senior scientist and an international expert on the seaweed valorization (120 international publications including patents). In 1985, he began his research career in the pharmaceutical industry in the French Company Roussel Uclaf. In 1990, he was recruited by the Institute of Valorization of Seaweeds (CEVA, Brittany, France) to lead researches about the chemical composition and nutritional properties of macroalgae. Professor Fleurence has participated in the establishment of the French regulation on marine algae used as sea vegetables. In 1994, he arrives as a head of laboratory “Proteins and Quality” at IFREMER (Research French Organism for the Sea Exploitation) and develops research on the nutritional properties of seaweed protein for use in human or animal food. Since 2002, he is a Professor at the University of Nantes and leads research on the development of seaweed uses as protein or pigment sources for the industry.

Marine Biology and Biochemistry, Laboratory Sea, Molecules, Health, University of Nantes, Nantes, France