How EMBRC Greece is developing innovative disease control strategies in marine aquaculture
Q&A with Dr. Pantelis Katharios, Founder and CEO of Aquatic Biologicals
Dr. Pantelis Katharios is a distinguished researcher and founder and CEO of Aquatic Biologicals: a spin-off company from the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR / EMBRC Greece), which has been recognised as the first Greek marine biotechnology company exclusively focused on aquaculture health. He studies emerging diseases in novel aquaculture species and has over 75 peer-reviewed publications and articles.
In this Q&A, Dr. Katharios explains the significance of his work, key challenges and how EMBRC can support marine aquaculture researchers.
What is the focus of your work?
A significant aspect of my work involves studying innovative disease control strategies in marine aquaculture. At HCMR, we’re exploring ways of bringing more vaccines to the market and finding alternatives to antibiotics, such as phage therapy.
What problem are you trying to solve?
Aquaculture is a hotspot for the development of antimicrobial resistance. This poses significant threats to the fish farming industry and could undermine its sustainability. Scientists are becoming increasingly concerned about antibiotics in aquatic environments and the associated risks of drug resistant bacteria. There is an urgent need to address antimicrobial resistance, particularly in European and Mediterranean marine aquaculture.
Salmon aquaculture has always been a focus for big European pharmaceutical companies while non-salmonid marine aquaculture is an under-served (but growing) sector. In the Mediterranean, it now produces nearly half a million tonnes of fish each year. While salmon aquaculture focuses only on Atlantic salmon, Mediterranean marine aquaculture grows around 20 different fish species, which prevents pharmaceutical companies from investing in developing and licensing new medicines and vaccines.
In Mediterranean aquaculture, disease is responsible for 400 million euros in lost revenue. Only four diseases are covered by licensed vaccines (compared to around 14 in salmon farming) and the quantities of antibiotics used per biomass of fish is much higher than for salmon.
What are you doing to solve this?
We’re trying to enhance fish health management by finding ways of bringing more vaccines to the market and finding alternatives to antibiotics.
This includes working to develop autogenous vaccines (used only when no licensed vaccines are commercially available). Because these are made using the same pathogen that caused the disease, they are very effective. We’ve used this method to treat an emerging pathogen in seabass aquaculture (Aeromonas veronii) with a survival rate of around 85%.
We’re also exploring phage therapy as an alternative to antibiotics; using phages as “smart” disinfectants in fish hatcheries. Phages are highly host specific so we can target only opportunistic pathogens, leaving beneficial bacteria unaffected. By doing so we can control and regulate the microbiome of developing larvae. Using a combination of phages also reduces the possibility of resistance.
What are the challenges?
Lately, we’ve seen a growing demand for vaccines – in particular autogenous vaccines – which has attracted the attention of EU regulations. Autogenous vaccines must now be created in line with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) guidelines. These ensure the consistent production of safe and high quality drugs by regulating manufacturing processes, facilities and documentation. To meet these regulations, you must follow complex processes, train dedicated compliance personnel and keep thorough records of everything. You may also need to invest in upgrading facilities. It is very expensive.
Challenges associated with phage therapy include finding phages with a broad host range, licensing, removing endotoxins (important but difficult and expensive) and propagating the phages for large volumes of water. The biggest challenge is that bacteria quickly develop resistance so you need to use multiple phages to attack a specific strain, preferably targeting different receptors. This is not easy to achieve.
Why is this important?
Phages have drawn the attention of pharma companies and are considered as the next trillion dollar idea in biotech. And the autogenous vaccines being developed by Aquatic Biologicals are paving the way for effective prevention and treatment of bacterial diseases in marine species. Through its work to support private sector researchers and Blue Economy professionals advancing innovation in these areas, Aquatic Biologicals and EMBRC Greece are playing a key role in the move towards a sustainable Blue Economy in Europe.
How can users access your research services?
Researchers from academia and industry can find HCMR’s services in EMBRC’s service catalogue. EMBRC Greece also participates in EU transnational access (TA) funded projects, which allow people to travel and use EMBRC facilities and services without charge so they can accelerate the development of innovative products for economy and society. We encourage people to look out for open calls from the TA programme. There are lots of options for scientists who want to collaborate so we recommend you get in touch to talk about the details.
