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Marine Biotechnology - Discovery • Development
Discovery
Geographic areas of high biodiversity will be identified by AUVs and collections will be performed by
FAU AUVs, Harbor Branch submersibles and SCUBA divers. The primary areas of interest are Florida's
waters and the nearby Bahamian islands. Collections of macroorganisms will include: sponges, soft
corals, tunicates and algae. Microorganisms will be collected from sea water, sediment and the
surfaces of macroorganisms.
The Center will therefore take full advantage of the enormous biodiversity of both marine and terrestrial
habitats. Groups involved with the extractions of compounds for evaluation in the pharmacology screening
will examine all classes of molecules with potential as therapeutics. This approach is designed to identify
as many "hits" as possible. Extracts will be tested in "traditional" screening programs by participating
labs (antibacterial, antifungal, anticancer) and importantly, new collaborations will be implemented within
this Center to provide novel assays for: diseases relating to hypoxia, oxidative damage and aging,
neurodegenerative disorders, and the treatment of alcoholism. High throughput screening will become available
to academic groups with the implementation of the Center via the new collaboration with Sunol Molecular Corporation.
Novel targets will be identified by the bioinformatics group and the Center's pharmacology program will
be able to evolve to address newly identified targets with novel assays. (See
Figure 2 - Schematic Overview of
Research Programs.) The combined talents of the marine biotechnology groups, the pharmacologists and bioinformatics
researchers together with the industrial expertise represent a world-class consortium that will discover valuable new
therapeutics and be able to respond to the ever-changing landscape of the pharmacology industry.
Development
One avenue of research needed to bring the technology forward is the development of methods for the sustainable
production of marine-derived drugs. Indeed, this is one of the critical challenges related to this field and will
be addressed by the integration of various academic and industrial groups comprising the Center. As described above,
marine organisms have proven to be a prolific source of novel chemical structures which often exhibit biological
activities of use in human health. Many of these marine-derived compounds are too complex to be produced by synthesis
on a large scale and thus their only commercial source is from the extraction of biomass collected from nature. Often
there is only a very limited supply of the source organism. In fact, the development of a number of very promising
marine natural products has been severely hampered by lack of available supply. Not only is it important to develop
modern production methods of bioactive marine natural products so that sufficient quantities can be produced for the
development of the natural product, but also it is essential that these goals are completed to avoid future over-collecting
with the potential for loss of a genetic resource.
In the terrestrial environment and in microbial systems, the use of modern biotechnology to generate natural products
has been realized. In addition to the production of the natural product (drug and/or drug lead), "unnatural" natural
products have also been produced. The current understanding of the structural diversity, the biomedical potential and
mechanism of action of marine natural products is maturing, yet this knowledge of biosynthetic origins and enzymology
is not well developed. This is in part due to technical difficulties associated with conducting biosynthetic experiments
with marine invertebrates. There is therefore a growing need for detailed biosynthesis-based investigations to develop
marine natural products as therapeutic agents. Knowledge of the biosynthetic pathway can define assays for the isolation
of key biosynthetic enzymes. Sequencing of these proteins allows for the development of probes to clone the corresponding
genes. Expression in an appropriate host then allows for the production of the compound of interest. This approach to
marine natural product production is currently being pursued by collaborations between groups at FAU and Harbor Branch.
These have already led to the filing of jointly owned patents. Data indicates that certain marine natural products are
produced by invertebrates such as sponges and soft corals, rather than from associated microbes. To develop production
methods of such compounds, a concerted program directed at defining conditions for invertebrate cell culture will be pursued.
In addition, culture media will be developed for microbes isolated from our collections with a view to optimizing natural
product production.
Please CLICK HERE to view the marine biotechnology team.
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