Grant: Engage Grants Program

Ocean Pride Fisheries Limited is a company that specializes in sea cucumber-based products and is veryinterested in the pursuit of advanced research into these products along with the development of novelnutraceuticals. My research group has studied species of berries for several years and has found neuroprotectiveeffects of various extracts from the fruits and leaves of these plants. The goal of the current project is todevelop and test a new sea cucumber-based nutraceutical product combined with blueberry extracts. Seacucumbers are excellent sources of dietary antioxidants, however to our knowledge there are no studies on theeffects of sea cucumber extracts on nervous system tissue. This project aims to find an optimal combination ofsea cucumber and blueberry extracts for the formulation of a novel and effective nutraceutical product that hasthe potential to counteract the effects of brain aging and neuroinflammation, which may contribute to variousbrain disorders. We will measure antioxidant capacity and other biochemical parameters in various blends ofsea cucumber and blueberry extracts. We will then test these blended extract preparations in cell culturemodels, which mimic neurotoxicity, in order to detect potential neuroprotective effects. This project can becompleted within a six month time period, therefore producing rapid results for the company. The describedexperiments and analysis will aid in discovering a novel nutraceutical based on sea cucumber and blueberryextracts. The scientific validation of the new sea cucumber-based nutraceutical will be extremely useful to themarketing of these products in Canada and beyond, and to the development of future products. This wouldhave a positive economic impact, especially for Atlantic Canada in particular.