Pharmaceutical and Nutraceutical Potential of Cyanobacteria

Cyanobacteria are the extraordinary microbes that are believed to have started life on Earth. It's been billions of years since they colonized this planet. Now, the question arises, what has made them so successful? The answer to this question lies in their remarkable potential to survive unfavorable environments, their substantial ability to fix the atmospheric carbon through photosynthesis, and their amazing secondary metabolites having antioxidant, osmo-protectants, and stress-tolerance abilities. Research on cyanobacteria has shown that these secondary metabolites and the substantial photosynthetic rates of cyanobacteria can be exploited for environmental, industrial, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical applications.

This book Pharmaceutical and Nutraceutical Potential of Cyanobacteria is a collection of 14 book chapters that have covered almost all aspects related to the opportunities, challenges, and potential applications whileemploying cyanobacteria as feedstock for various industrial and environmental applications with a special focus on pharmaceutical and nutraceutical applications. Some sections have also covered the enhanced biosynthesis, extraction, storage, and marketing of the cyanobacterial bioactive compounds (phycobilins, carotenoids, fatty acids, amino acids), and applications of cyanobacteria as food/feed of the future. We believe that this book will provide substantial learning opportunities to the readers including graduate students, academicians, phycologists, policymakers, environmental entrepreneurs, and industrialists.

This book could be included in SDG 12 publications.

First book on promising potential of cyanobacteria for industrial, environmental and pharmaceutical applications Discusses future possibilities of cultivating cyanobacteria as alternative health food vs. current global market Reflects high demand for healthier foods, novel antiaging, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory bioproducts

Auteur

Prof. Dr. Muhammad Aamer Mehmood earned his Ph.D. from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan in 2010. He has teaching & research experience spanning more than 12 years as a regular faculty member at Government College University Faisalabad (GCUF), Pakistan. Besides, he has research experience at the Third Institute of Oceanography (Xiamen, China), Sichuan University of Science & Engineering (Zigong, China), & Shanghai Jiaotong University (Shanghai, China).

Currently, he is working as a Professor and Lead-PI of the BioEcoTech Research Cluster at the Department of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology. He has been working on process optimization for the sustainable utilization of bio-resources with a special focus on microalgae and cyanobacteria, wastewater recycling, and biomass-to-bioenergy conversion through pyrolysis and bioprocessing since 2010. His research projects involve bioprospecting and characterization of microalgae/cyanobacteria in a multiproduct biorefinery paradigm to produce bioproducts (biofertilizers, industrial enzymes, biopolymers) while keeping the Energy-Water Environment* ***nexus sustainable.

He has received research funding from the Higher Education Commission, in Pakistan, the International Foundation for Science in Sweden, The World Academy of Sciences in Italy, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He has authored/co-authored hundred (100) research & review articles (with ~563 Impact Factor) in peer-reviewed journals and eleven (11) book chapters. For his contributions to the field, He was awarded the Research Productivity Award (one of the most prestigious academic awards in Pakistan) for the years 2011, 2012, and 2014 by Pakistan Council for Science & Technology, and Young Leaders Award 2017 by Positive Pakistan. Moreover, in 2019, he was honored with the highest province-level academic title "The Distinguished Expert" by the Sichuan government, China.

He serves as Editor/Guest Editor at several reputed journals including Protein & Peptide Letters, Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery, PLOS ONE, PeerJ, BMC Biotechnology, Environmental and Toxicology Management, Asian Journal of Agriculture and Biology. He is an Executive Board Member of the Asian Federation of Biotechnology and Secretary-General of the Asian Federation of Biotechnology (Pakistan Chapter).

Prof. Dr. Pradeep Verma completed his Ph.D. from Sardar Patel University, Gujarat, India, in 2002. In the same year, he was selected as UNESCO fellow and joined Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic. He later moved to Charles University, Prague, to work as a Post-Doctoral Fellow. In 2004, he joined as a visiting scientist at UFZ Centre for Environmental Research, Halle, Germany. He was awarded a DFG fellowship which provided him another opportunity to work as a Post- Doctoral Fellow at Gottingen University, Germany. He moved to India in 2007 where he joined Reliance Life Sciences, Mumbai, and worked extensively on biobutanol production which attributed a few patents to his name. Later he was awarded with JSPS Post-Doctoral Fellowship Programme and joined Laboratory of Biomass Conversion, Research Institute of Sustainable Humanosphere (RISH), Kyoto University, Japan. He is also a recipient of various prestigious awards such as Ron-Cockcroft award by Swedish society, UNESCO Fellow ASCR Prague. Prof. Verma began his independent academic career in 2009 as a Reader and Founder Head at the Department of Microbiology at Assam University. In 2011, he moved to the Department of Biotechnology at Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya (a Central University), Bilaspur, and served as an Associate professor till 2013. He is currently working as Professor (former Head and Dean, School of Life Sciences) at Department of Microbiology, CURAJ. He is a member of various national and international societies/academies. He has completed two collaborated projects worth 150 million INR in microbial diversity and bioenergy.

Prof. Verma is a Group leader of the Bioprocess and Bioenergy laboratory at the Department of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, CURAJ. His area of expertise involves Microbial Diversity, Bioremediation, Bioprocess Development, Lignocellulosic and Algal Biomass based Biorefinery. He also holds 12 International patents in the field of microwave-assisted biomass pretreatment and bio-butanol production. He has more than 62 research articles in peer-reviewed international journals and contributed to several book chapters (28 published; 15 in press) in different edited books. He has also edited 3 books in international publishers such as Springer and Elsevier. He is a Guest editor to several journals such as Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery (Springer), Frontier in Nanotechnology (Frontiers), and International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (MDPI). He is also an editorial board member for the Journal Current Nanomedicine (Bentham Sciences). He is acting as a reviewer for more than 40 journals in different publication houses such as Springer, Elsevier, RSC, ACS, Nature, Frontiers, MDPI, etc.

Dr. Maulin P. Shah has been an active researcher and scientific writer in his field for over 20 years. He earned a B.Sc. degree (1999) in Microbiology from Gujarat University, Godhra (Gujarat), India. He also earned his Ph.D. degree (2005) in Environmental Microbiology from Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar (Gujarat), India. He is Chief Scientist & Head of the Industrial Wastewater Research Lab, Division of Applied and Environmental Microbiology Lab at Enviro Technology Ltd., Ankleshwar, Gujarat, India. His work focuses on the impact of industrial pollution on the microbial diversity of wastewater, and genetically engineering high-impact microbes for the degradation of hazardous materials. His r…