SPECTROSCOPY
The Waters Acquity system used in the lab
GOODPROSPECTS T
Dr Espen Hansen discusses marine bioprospecting with advanced UPLC and MS technology
he majority of drugs on the market are derived from nature, but still there is a wide range of entirely unknown sources of compounds to
develop novel drugs, most of which are untapped but could lead to treatments for a range of diseases and infections. In the ongoing search for new, more effective medicines, researchers are looking towards some of the least explored environments to discover organisms with the potential to provide unique bioactive natural products. One such environment is the Arctic, specifically the sea. Te majority of current research on marine biodiversity concentrates on tropical organisms, so researchers at the Marbio analytical laboratory, Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, are looking towards cold-adapted organisms for their work on high-
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throughput screening and natural marine products discovery. Tese organisms include invertebrates and microorganisms such as microalgae, bacteria and fungi. Marbio scientists focus their research on marine bioprospecting – the systematic search for interesting and unique genes, molecules, and organisms from the marine environment with features that could be useful to society and/or have potential for commercial development. Te natural products resulting from bioprospecting are useful in many drug discovery applications, such as antibacterial, anticancer, immunostimulants, anti- inflammatories, antioxidants and diabetes treatment.
Te laboratory isolates previously
uncultured bacterial strains from marine sediments, some of which will produce novel secondary metabolites that could
The lab constantly improves its methods
be translated into drugs. Te search for these secondary metabolites from natural sources can be laborious in part because of rediscovery of known compounds, but the Marbio group saves vital time and resources by eliminating these compounds by a process called “dereplication”. Liquid
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