MariCal Inc.
Contact Information
400 Commercial Street
Portland ME 04101
Primary Phone: 207-773-2500
www.marical.biz
The Company
MariCal, Inc. headquartered in Portland, Maine was founded in 1996 and is a privately held animal health and nutrition biotechnology company.
The Company's proprietary technology is based on the fundamental roles that polyvalent cation and nutrient sensing receptors called Calcium Sensing Receptor (CaSR) proteins play in the physiological processes of the various life stages of animals.
CaSRs were first characterized by MariCal President and Co-Founder Dr. H.W. Harris M.D., Ph.D., in 1993 when he was a faculty member and staff physician at The Children's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Harris made this discovery while conducting research on the regulation of calcium (Ca2+) in animals in collaboration with Dr. Steven C. Hebert, M.D. of Yale University School of Medicine, and Dr. Edward M. Brown, M.D., of Harvard Medical School.
MariCal's research has uncovered that the CaSR protein serves as a biological "master switch" enabling animals, including humans, fish, livestock and companion animals to sense and respond to changes in their extracellular environments such as alterations in water salinity and nutritional composition.
MariCal possesses the intellectual property rights to the calcium sensing receptor for aquatic and non-human terrestrial animal (food and companion animal) applications and currently has 35 issued and pending patents in this field.
In 2002, MariCal's research led to a series of discoveries recognizing that CaSRs are fundamental salinity-nutrient sensing receptors in aquatic organisms and central to osmotic regulation.
MariCal introduced its first commercial application of the CaSR technology to the global salmon aquaculture industry for improved smoltification of salmonid species, the SuperSmolt® Program.
In 2006, MariCal introduced its second aquaculture industry application of the CaSR technology for the low salinity production of marine food fish, specifically, cobia. MariCal commercialized this technology application through the joint venture formation of Low Salinity Inc. (LSI), the parent company to Virginia Cobia Farms.
Also in 2006, MariCal acquired worldwide exclusive license for calcium receptor applications to mammalian and non-mammalian species utilized for food production or companion animals.
Today, MariCal's research is focused on animal health and nutrition and the development of the CaSR technology for performance enhancement, prophylactic and. therapeutic applications, and general health in poultry, swine, beef, dairy, horses, dogs, and cats.
Laboratory Research