Humans have relied on the ocean for millennia as a source of food and materials for tools. Now, we rely on the ocean as a source of genes that we can harness to increase food stocks and use as medicine for cancer and other diseases.
The blue biotechnology industry uses marine organisms to find compounds of interest for human use. Marine organisms produce countless lipids, proteins, and enzymes that help them thrive and survive in the ocean. These compounds can protect the organisms from disease or even allow them to parasitize or infect another species. The same bioactive compounds can be utilized to advance medicine for people. Other applications from bioactive compounds include developing resources used for food and feed stocks, cosmetics, healthcare, and diagnostic devices.
New cancer treatments, antibiotics and antifungals may lie in the genes of marine microorganisms in particular. In fact, bacteria comprise at least 90% of marine biomass. Microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, and virus, are studied in microbiome research, which looks at the community of microorganisms as a whole. Read more