Her name ? Dactylospongia metachromia . A learned name, certainly, but one that could become familiar. For this Polynesian sponge, very abundant in the Tuamotu Archipelago (Tahiti), could be a miracle cure for the more than 425 million people with type 2 diabetes worldwide.
The sponge is at the heart of the Redame project (Study of sponge resource Dactylospongia metachromia for sustainable production) of scientific research for the next three years, reads the minutes of the Council of Ministers held Wednesday in Papeete.
Three years of work to create an aquaculture sector
Redame came into being as a result of research work launched in 2011 that showed that this sponge was an important source of two particular molecules. Which, according to official research, demonstrate a remarkable activity on the production of insulin that would relieve considerably people with type 2 diabetes (90% of cases).
It remains to create an aquaculture sector around this sponge, and for this, for three years, work will be conducted to quantify the natural resource and study how sustainable production could be implemented at Tuamotu.
Research over the next three years represents an investment of 687,000 euros.
