Research and development in the field of Marine Biotechnology     Marine microorganisms are a prolific resource of new technical enzymes and pharmacologically active agents or lead structures. Their special living conditions and functions in the ecosystem force them to produce a vast number of enzymes with unique activities and bioactive metabolites with new structures.   Main Topics   Bioactive compounds   - Screening and characterisation of cyanobacteria and marine fungi producing substances with antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, cytostatic, immunomodulatory or enzyme inhibitory properties - Isolation, structure elucidation and analysis of bioactive compounds - cultivation of marine microorganisms - Target analyses (Proteomics)   Cold-adapted enzymes   - Screening of psychrophilic microorganisms with cold-adapted enzymatic activities - Cloning and expression of cold-adapted enzymes   Enzyme production processes   - Development of bacterial expression systems for the overproduction of thermolabile or insoluble enzymes - Optimisation of bacterial fermentation processes - Quality control of recombinant enzymes by proteomics