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On the bridge of the RVEL, Second Mate Matt Skelley steers the ship through rough seas while Chief Scientist John Reed checks the sonar and researcher Brian Killday watches the mainland through binoculars.
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Dr. Shirley Pomponi prepares to freeze a sample for transport to the labs at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution (HBOI).
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Research divers Kathleen Janda (left) and Tara Pitts, hard at work.
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The sun sets on the last day of the expedition. Tonight scientists will celebrate the completion of a safe and successful mission. |
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Within hours of our arrival at Aruba, the decision was made to depart. The rough seas, driven by 25-knot winds, had the potential to compromise the safety of both scuba and submersible operations. It was not worth the risk. So, the RVEL made a midnight run across the pitching surface to the island of Curaçao where our expedition began. We will continue dive operations off the Curaçao's coast for another day, then wrap up the expedition tomorrow.
I tracked down Principal Investigator Shirley Pomponi as she was sorting through one of the last samples returned to the ship. "In general, I'm very pleased with our results," Pomponi told me. "We had lots of projects going on simultaneously. Everyone worked well together and were able to share results."
Pomponi said she had hoped for greater diversity among the sampled deep-sea organisms, but that promising data is coming from the assorted experiments performed during the expedition.
Research findings often yield as many questions as answers -- that's the nature of science. And, although the on-board labs are well equipped, it takes land based laboratories to finish the complex work of sorting out these samples, molecule by molecule.
"Chemically, some of the samples are very rich," Pomponi continued. "We will follow-up on those indications back at Harbor Branch [Oceanographic Institution]."
Once the researchers return to their labs on land, more extracts will be made from organisms collected and frozen on this cruise. These extracts may contain hundreds of chemical compounds. Every promising compound must be purified until the chemists and biologists have a collection of isolated, active compounds. With a lot of luck and further research, a few of these compounds may be found to posess unique biological and therapeutic properties.
This is high-stakes, big-dollar science. If all goes well and exciting compounds do come out of our Caribbean research trip, they will likely be patented and then licensed exclusively to a partner in the pharmaceutical industry. That company will take over the drug development process. Following the rules for good science, their scientists will verify results by repeating all of the tests performed here on the EDWIN LINK and at Harbor Branch. They may confirm that some chemical from one of our samples is a powerful anti-cancer agent. They may find a compound that stimulates the immune system, stifles inflammation, or kills pain.
If the compound passes both cell and animal trials confirming that it is non-toxic, human trials may begin. The Food and Drug Administration oversees this long, expensive, three-staged process. At any point along the way, the potential drug may be rejected -- there are never any guarantees that a medicine will make it to market and repay the investment in research. If a new drug makes it all the way to the pharmacy shelf from the waters of Curacao and Bonaire, the journey will have taken as long as 15 years...maybe longer.
This expedition was just the first step in a much larger process. But, it is surely the most important step. Without the courage, resources, and expertise to search the depths, medicines might never come from the bountiful pharmacopeia of these tropical seas. Exploration is the only path to discovery. |
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