Highlights Cloning marine DNA to supply ‘drugs from the sea’ AIMS’ scientists, in strategic collaboration with the University of Aberdeen and the University of London School of Pharmacy (ULSOP), have cloned DNA from marine resources into the bacterium E.coli in a bid to obtain a sustainable supply of potentially very significant new drug leads from the sea. Compounds from marine organisms like sea squirts and sponges show exceptional promise for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and viral diseases, but obtaining a large-scale supply of these complex chemicals for worldwide use has been environmentally unsound and economically unviable. For example, to produce a cancer-fighting drug from a marine source like a sponge it is estimated that 20,000 tonnes of a particular species might need to be harvested each year to meet the global market need. This research team has been the first in the world to succeed in providing a solution by transferring the DNA responsible for producing a cancer-fighting chemical produced by a seasquirt, and placing the biosynthetic genes in an easy-to-culture bacterium, which produces the chemical by microbial fermentation. Drs. Paul Long (ULSOP) and Walt Dunlap (AIMS) examine E.coli colonies cloned with marine DNA. Photo: W. Ellery Scientists need only one small collection of the seasquirt to obtain an indefinite supply of the chemical, which has potential for the treatment of certain types of lymphoma. This work has been described as one of the most important breakthroughs in marine biotechnology in recent times and heralds a bright future for the development of drugs from the sea. All elements of this work were performed at AIMS.

November 20, 2005