HBOI | Press Relations | ONLINE EXPEDITION TO THE DEPTHS OF THE BAHAMAS IN SEARCH OF NEW DRUGS FROM THE SEA

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ONLINE EXPEDITION TO THE DEPTHS OF THE BAHAMAS IN SEARCH OF NEW DRUGS FROM THE SEA

October 09, 2003 -- Using a deep-diving manned submersible and scuba, a team of HARBOR BRANCH researchers is currently exploring waters around the Bahamas in search of new marine organisms that produce chemicals with potential for fighting human diseases. Go to www.at-sea.org to read dispatches from the ship throughout the expedition from Oct. 9-24, 2003, and to learn more about the team's research.

At HARBOR BRANCH Oceanographic Institution (HBOI), scientists have spent two decades searching around the globe for new marine animals that might contain chemicals with the potential to fight cancer, Alzheimer's and other human maladies. Much of this research has relied on the institution's two Johnson-Sea-Link submersibles, which can take four people to a depth of 3,000 feet and are equipped with sophisticated and unique robotic equipment for collecting marine organisms.

This work has already led to the discovery of several chemicals that have shown great promise for fighting cancer, infections, and other afflictions. One, a compound called discodermolide, has proven an effective cancer cell killer, even in tumors that are resistant to Taxol¨, one of the best treatments for breast and ovarian cancers currently available. It is now in the first phase of human clinical trials and continues to show great promise. Such successes are encouraging, but more treatments are needed if the spread of pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, and other diseases are to be stopped, and so the search continues.

The Bahamas mission, aboard HARBOR BRANCH's Seward Johnson II research vessel has several key goals:

1) To document deep-water seafloor communities using video, photographs, and collection of archive specimens

2) To collect and test chemicals produced in or by marine organisms collected to discover if they have the potential to fight human diseases. This process involves simple tests while on the ship that determine if a chemical can, for instance, kill bacteria, and then more elaborate tests back on land that indicate whether a chemical can kill cancer cells or shows other signs of medical potential.

3) To gather living specimens of sponges and tunicates for research on ways to either farm-raise the animals that produce important chemicals or to maintain healthy laboratory cultures of microorganisms, which are often supported by larger animals such as sponges, that produce important chemicals.

Researchers will begin with only a general plan for where they hope to go among the Bahamas islands during the expedition. The path the ship actually takes will be determined "on-the-fly" as dictated by weather and water conditions, which can make work in certain areas rough and unproductive, at times forcing the team to areas far from where they initially planned to operate.

Though we won't know until it happens where the expedition will lead, it's sure to be an adventure filled with fascinating marine life, and potentially life-saving research. To follow the scientists and learn what they see and discover, go to www.at-sea.org regularly during the Bahamas Journey: a Quest for Drugs from the Sea.

For more information, please contact Mark Schrope at 772-216-0390 or schrope@hboi.edu.

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HARBOR BRANCH Oceanographic Institution was founded in Ft. Pierce, Fla., in 1971 to support the exploration and conservation of the world's oceans. The institution has held to this mission and grown into one of the world's leading oceanographic institutions with a 500-acre campus, over 200 personnel, and a fleet of sophisticated research ships and submersibles.