Historically, economic zones have been important in order to protect fish and petroleum resources, but in the age of ‘bio-prospecting’ and high-technology drug discovery, the rich abundance of diverse marine life may prove to be one of Australia’s most valuable resources. Marine organisms often produce chemicals as a means of defence or as an offensive weapon. Scientists are now beginning to look at such bioactive chemicals in order to discover new drugs or other useful products for humans, animal health, agriculture and other industries.

While the diversity of Australia’s marine organisms have made it the target of bio-prospecting by a variety of overseas organisations, a vibrant Australian pharmaceutical industry depends on Australia itself developing this resource into commercially successful drugs and products - a strategy strongly supported by the Commonwealth Government.

Since 1994, researchers at the Australian Institute of Marine Science have been working with the Australian pharmaceutical company, AMRAD, as part of a national network of Australian organisations committed to the commercialisation of Australia’s biomedical research. The vision of the AIMS Marine Bioproducts Project is to discover a compound from a marine organism which leads to a major commercial drug. While such an achievement could take ten years or more, the process leading to such a discovery stands to tell us much about the marine life in our oceans.

The Institute currently maintains a collection of more than 10,000 marine macro-organisms, all comprehensively documented in terms of taxonomic information and field data. A goal of the project is to have the collection exceed 13,000 by the end of 1998, providing a library of information on Australia’s marine macro-organisms. The collection not only encompasses the range of marine species in Australia’s oceans, it also covers geographic and ecological diversity as well. Such information is not only vital to future bioproduct development, it expands the world’s knowledge of the ecology and natural history of marine organisms. Researchers screen each of the organisms for the bioactive chemicals they could contain (for example, corals are sources of sun-protective chemicals and stonefish contain neurotoxins). Those which show potential move on to the next level of testing.

Currently, researchers with the AIMS-AMRAD Marine Drug Discovery Program are concentrating on testing for compounds that might be applicable to central nervous system disturbances. For example, their current primary test provides an indicator of compounds which could be useful in the treatment of stroke victims. During a stroke, the enzyme neuronal nitric oxide synthase is overstimulated, thus killing neurons in the brain. Researchers are looking for a chemical which might selectively inhibit this enzyme and thus prevent the permanent disabling of stroke victims.

The AIMS-AMRAD Marine Pharmacology team uses biological systems to screen for prospective drug candidates from the collection. Not only does this work help identify potential drug candidates, it also contributes to the knowledge of how selected receptors and enzymes function. Researchers test more than 5,000 extracts per year against the many in-house pharmacological targets, and then rank them according to their potential.

Researchers with the AIMS-AMRAD Marine Natural Products Chemistry sub-project are identifying prospective drug candidates by examining the structure of the compounds using a variety of chemical tests and instruments. Within three weeks of the collection team bringing in new organisms, the Natural Products team has provided extracts of potential compounds, screened and ranked them.

An important task of the Marine Bioproducts Project is the development of a marine microbe collection. The tiny micro-organisms that live on or within marine organisms produce a diverse range of bioactive chemicals. AIMS researchers plan to isolate over 6,000 taxonomically diverse micro-organisms by December 1998, and to cultivate an additional 800 previously unknown and unusual micro-organisms. Marine fungi and an important group of bacteria called actinomycetes are also being targeted, since both these groups of organisms have an excellent track record in natural product production. Over 4,000 actinomycetes and fungi will be isolated by the year 2000.

However, the AIMS Marine Bioproducts Project goes beyond drug development. In Western Australia, scientists are not only expanding the macro-organism collection to include species from the Indian Ocean, they are also addressing industry concerns by studying sources of paralytic shellfish toxins which the ballast water of international ships may introduce into Australia’s marine environment. Researchers are also studying algae which are known to produce chemicals that can induce coral larvae to settle on substrates. In a time when the destruction of coral reefs is causing grave international concerns, discovering chemicals which might aid in the recovery of such reefs is of great importance.

Marine organisms often exhibit unique chemical responses when they are under stress. Another sub-project focuses on understanding these processes, at the sub-cellular level, in order to gain insight into the significance of environmental variability and global climate change. Many of the chemicals may also prove to have commercial or biomedical applications. For example, the chemicals corals produce to protect themselves from UV exposure may soon be used in sunscreen protection.

The Marine Bioproducts Project also includes a team of researchers looking towards the future direction of research by developing a clearer understanding of the fundamental aspects of marine biology and chemistry on a molecular level, thereby promoting innovative new projects for the future.

Mass spectrometry and other technological advances have also proved invaluable in their ability to solve difficult problems in natural products chemistry. Members of the AIMS team are focusing on developing such tools for present and future uses.

Discoveries made through the Marine Bioproducts Project will not only help the future of Australia’s pharmaceutical industry, it will also tell us a great deal about the marine life in our oceans. In addition, the discovery of an important chemical in a marine organism could serve as further ammunition in the battle to ensure the protection of our marine environment. While the initial collection involves taking small samples of organisms from the wild, a large effort is under way to ensure the conservation of these resources. Researchers are working to find alternative means of producing these chemicals by cultivating those bioactive organisms which show great promise.