PhD student Kyriaki Tsirtsidou focuses on the exploitation of marine chitosan from crab- and shrimp-shells for the development of hydrogels, without the use of any chemical compounds. These chitosan-based hydrogels were used for the encapsulation of sensitive natural bioactive compounds, such as phenolic compounds from strawberries and carotenoids from microalgae. The bioactive-rich hydrogels could be further used as novel ingredients for the development of functional food products with several health benefits. The research is conducted under the supervision of Prof. Dr. ir. Katleen Raes (Research group VEG-i-TEC, UGent) and Dr. Johan Robbens (Cell Blue Biotech and Food Integrity group, ILVO). The research is part of the BlueCC project dealing with the sustainable extraction and valorization of collagen and chitin/chitosan from marine sources. BlueCC is funded by BlueBio Cofund and the involved partners are Nofima (Norway), which is also the project coordinator, Ghent University (Belgium), ILVO (Belgium), Fraunhofer (Germany), Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (Italy) and CESAM (Portugal).

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