PRESSURISED: 016 - Biodiscovery with Marcel Jaspars

The Deep-Sea Podcast

Our short and to the point PRESSURISED version of episode 16. If you don't have time for the full episode and want to get right to the science without any of our waffle, this is the place to be!

Read the show notes and find the full episode here:

https://www.armatusoceanic.com/podcast/016-biodiscovery

We are in desperate need for new bioactive compounds. Super bugs are on the rise as evolution finds a way of thwarting our antibiotics. We are also continually on the hunt for compounds that can fight disease, ease suffering or get your teeth super white. The natural world has been experimenting for millions of years and has come up with solutions far more elegant than we could come up with.

The ocean, and in particular the deep ocean, may be the best place to look for new compounds but is this a threat to the ocean? It is often mentioned alongside seabed trawling, climate change and mining as a threat to the deep ocean. Should we call it bioprospecting or biodiscovery and what’s the difference? If most of the world’s ocean belongs to everyone, who owns a discovery? How do we ensure that developed nations, who are better equipped to benefit from a discovery, don’t leave developing nations out? Are companies really patenting naturally occurring compounds? If we find something exciting, what is the process for it becoming the next wonder drug?

While they both agree that looking for new compounds in the deep sea sounds good, Alan and Thom are soon stumped by the complexities of actually making that happen in a fair and sustainable way. Luckily, they can call on Professor Marcel Jaspars, head of the Marine Biodiscovery Centre to help us through the practicalities of biodiscovery but also its political and ethical complexities.

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Read the show notes and find out more about us at:

www.armatusoceanic.com

Links

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

The Convention on Biological Diversity

The Nagoya Protocol

The Deepest of Ironies (paywall)

Evolving Perspectives On The International Seabed Area’s Genetic Resources: Fifteen Years After The ‘Deepest Of Ironies’ (paywall)

Who owns marine biodiversity? Contesting the world order through the ‘common heritage of humankind’ principle

Corporate control and global governance of marine genetic resources

Polymers: Secrets from the deep sea

Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS)

Ocean Tool for Public Understanding and Science (OcToPUS)

Song of the Ocean – Global Virtual Performance 2021

Sharing the Benefits of the Ocean (loads of wider reading here)

Glossary

Benthopelagic - Living and feeding near the bottom as well as in midwaters or near the surface but also the depth zone about 100 metres off the bottom at all depths below the edge of the continental shelf.

Endothermy – Animals that regulate their body temperature (we used to call this ‘warm blooded’)

Geomagnetic – The Earth’s magnetic field e.g., magnetic north.

Mantle – The muscular tube that makes up a squids body.

Mesopelagic – Open water fish between about 200 and 1,000 metres (approximately 650 and 3,300 ft) down.

SoFAR channel - sound fixing and ranging channel. The SOFAR channel acts as a waveguide for sound, and low frequency sound waves within the channel may travel thousands of miles before dissipating.

Vertical migration – Every night, mesopelagic fish come shallower to feed. This is the largest migration on Earth and it happens every day.

Credits

Theme – Hadal Zone Express by Märvel