IODINE: Biogeochemical Cycle of Iodine and Human Health

Description and Aim

The IODINE workshop will bring together scientists at the cutting edge of iodine science in Europe to discuss innovative approaches to a number of interdisciplinary research themes centered on iodine. The health problem of iodine deficiency is addressed most efficiently at the European rather than the national level, as the countries that suffer most from this problem are different from the countries that have the scientific expertise, marine sources, and the industrial activity to develop iodised products. The aim of the proposed workshop is to exchange results and expertise in an interactive way, and to see if existing collaborations can be reinforced, and new ones established, by preparing an application for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network- European Training Network in the H2020 programme of the European Commission. In such a network, young researchers would be trained at the cutting edge of several interdisciplinary facets of iodine research by creating a network of PhD projects integrated in the research of European leaders in the field: (1) the iodometabolome and iodine store of brown algae, and the production of elemental iodine from this source; (2) the enzymes involved in iodine accumulation and incorporation, and deiodination; (3) bioinorganic chemistry and advanced spectroscopy/mass spectrometry applied to iodine and related trace elements (Br, V, Fe, Se); (4) iodine biogeochemistry from oceanic emissions to deposition – implications for atmospheric science and public health; (5) animal and human nutrition and health.