Marine biotechnology group
Bio-innovation
"Creating
knowledge and wealth through innovation"
Imagine being seventy years old,
with the body and mind of someone twenty years your junior.
| That’s just one of
the research projects being conducted by the AIMS
Bio-innovation team. They’re unravelling Mother
Nature’s defences in a bid to learn how to slow the
ageing process and help us live healthier as we age. This discovery could help to combat
degenerative diseases and prevent cancer.
This
group is engineering cutting edge technologies across
two main areas of focus, the first is to apply new
molecular and genetic technologies for environmental
analysis, the second is in the generation of novel
healthcare applications derived from marine organisms. |
 Bio-innovation
team
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Our Team
Our team is made up of eco-toxicologists,
biochemists, microbiologists and geneticists. We are tasked to
develop innovated technologies for water quality assessment, for
detection of aquatic toxins and contaminants, for marine disease and
pest diagnostics, and for the evaluation of environmental stress in
sentinel marine organisms.
This team develops detection systems to
enable fast diagnostic tests for toxin contamination in seafood and
drinking water. Scientists examine how marine organisms can be used
to develop medicines and preventative healthcare products. This team
is making significant progress to maximise the biosynthetic
production of lead anti-cancer agents discovered in marine
organisms, develop therapeutics to retard degenerative disease, as
well as anti-oxidants for food processing and cosmetics.
Environmental Technologies
Marine organisms are exposed to
a range of toxins
and contaminants including pesticides, antifoulants, heavy
metals, biological toxins and hydrocarbons. There are very few
reliable techniques that are able to link physiological stress
responses of aquatic organisms to conditions of water quality. This
team is filling that critical gap in technology and developing tools
that enable rapid diagnosis of contamination in the marine
environment.
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A very important aspect of this work is
being conducted in the fragile marine environment of Antarctica
where
scientists are using sea sponges as stress indicator organisms.
Sponges are filter feeders and are ideal for assessing environmental
contaminants that enter the primary food chain.
Researchers are first to use DNA-microarray
technologies to determine gene expression response of corals to
coral bleaching
and aquatic pollution.
Diving
under the Antarctic ice for
the
collection of marine sponges
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Scientists are using genetic techniques to
identify commercial fish species and stock structure, specifically coral
trout, an increasingly important fishery in the live fish trade. The
tools will assist reef managers to identify a fish species, and
where the fish were caught.
| AIMS geneticists are also developing
techniques to classify and identify marine stingers,
specifically those that cause Irukandji syndrome. This work is
crucial to effective risk management of Irukandji stings.
Little is known about bacteria and
other microbes that are
abundant within the tissues and surface layer of corals. Our team is
working to change that and investigate the micro-organisms
associated with healthy corals and those linked with coral
disease.
|
The predominant species of marine
stinger (Carukia barnesi) causing Irukanji
syndrome in North Queensland waters.
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Novel Healthcare Technologies
AIMS scientists believe tropical marine
bacteria hold the key for improving human health in
anti-ageing
research. They’ve discovered that UV-tolerant bacteria living
on the surface of shallow-water corals are protected by the ability
to enhance a powerful antioxidant enzyme when exposed to harmful UV
rays. Finding a therapeutic means to regulate this key metabolic
enzyme could slow the degenerative process of aging, allowing us to
live healthier as we grow old.
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Contamination by biological toxins is an
increasing risk to water supplies and consumers of seafood. AIMS is
developing a commercial test for aquatic toxins, with the accuracy of
sophisticated laboratory methods, that can be conducted in the field
by the seafood and water supply industries.
AIMS researchers have discovered novel
marine-derived antioxidants that may have commercial application
in cosmetics and food processing. Several lead compounds are being
evaluated in medicine for use in the prevention of neurological
disorders, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
Several anti-cancer agents from marine
sponges are currently in the first stage of pharmaceutical
development. They’re suspected to be products derived from
symbiotic micro-organisms residing within the sponge. The
Bio-innovation Team is working with visiting scientists to
investigate how these agents are biosynthesised within the
source sponge to optimise the production of anti-cancer agents.
|
AIMS
is unlocking natures
secrets of sun protection.
Electron
micrograph of
bacterial partners within the
tissues of a marine sponge
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Contact
Dr Walt
Dunlap,
Team Leader
Telephone: (07)
4753 4365
Facsimile: (07) 4772 5852
Email: w.dunlap@aims.gov.au
December 2, 2004
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