Industry Investors Show Increased Interest In Denizens Of The Deep

Denizens Of The Deep Author: Karen Young Kreeger Stymied by drug-resistant tumors and antibiotic-outwitting microbes, researchers are taking the plunge and sifting through the largely unexplored biodiversity offered by marine organisms. Drugs and other products from the sea have been a steadily growing research interest for the last 20 years. Recently, however, backers from business and government have stepped up their involvement, opened up their wallets, and broadened their scope in the fiel

Written byKaren Young Kreeger

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Denizens Of The Deep Author: Karen Young Kreeger
Stymied by drug-resistant tumors and antibiotic-outwitting microbes, researchers are taking the plunge and sifting through the largely unexplored biodiversity offered by marine organisms. Drugs and other products from the sea have been a steadily growing research interest for the last 20 years. Recently, however, backers from business and government have stepped up their involvement, opened up their wallets, and broadened their scope in the field of marine biotechnology.

FATHOMING THE POSSIBILITIES: Scientists, including Harbor Branch's Shirley Pomponi, and investors are looking to the ocean as a new source of drugs, such as the antitumor compound derived from these sea squirts. In 1992-the latest date for which figures are available-the United States government spent about $44 million in marine biotechnology research across seven areas of study: molecular genetics, biomaterials, metabolism, fouling organisms, bioprocessing, environmental science, and aquaculture (D.H. Attaway, D.J. Grimes, Journal of ...

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