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Julie Olson
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Julie Olson, microbiologist:
"We're attacking these microbes
from all angles."
Although currently unsure of her exact success rate, Olson has grown a nice diversity of microbes. Happy with the progress of her specimens, she will continue to monitor their growth by tediously counting the thousands of minute microbial communities. However, she won't be able to isolate any potential compounds until she gets back on dry land. The necessary sterile conditions for such a process simply do not exist at sea. |
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Robin Willoughby
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Robin Willoughby, marine invertebrate cell biologist:
"Our cells seem to be attaching and dividing."
Willoughby has been watching success bud under her microscope. She and her colleagues have succeeded in growing compound-producing cells from the sponge Teichaxinella morchella. But, this is only the first step. Their next challenge will be to sustain a continuous line of viable cells, generation after generation. Then, they will attempt to apply their results on a larger scale, and with other species of sponges. |
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Claudia Harper
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Claudia Harper, veterinarian:
Harper was successful in keeping some of her deep-sea sponges alive in captivity, several others died. During her post-mortem evaluation, she found some curious results that confounded the issue. As is often the case with science, there was no clear answer -- she couldn't tell what had killed some of the sponges. Beginning this afternoon, she will be re-running experiments with the same animals, but a new set of variables. |
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Amy Wright
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Amy Wright, natural products chemist:
"We've had some interesting results."
In the last two weeks, Wright has analyzed a tremendous diversity of aquatic invertebrates. She admits the results of some of her primary chemical analyses are promising, and they are making some interesting discoveries. However, for more details, you'll have to wait and read about it in the scientific literature. |
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August 17, 9:09am, Gulf of Mexico, 70 miles west of Key West, Florida -- Through the night and into this morning the R/V EDWIN LINK steamed toward Key West. There, the crew will have a brief respite from their work before returning to the sea with fresh minds and new objectives.
Each one of the scientists that I have talked with over the last two weeks plays a unique role in this complex, biomedical research effort. But, there are more people to get to know and more discoveries to uncover. While the just-completed first leg of our mission focused mainly on the collection of sponges with known biomedical properties, the second leg will concentrate on the collection and analysis of an assortment of new invertebrates. And, the science crew will begin their pioneering biodiversity survey of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. |
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After reading about the researchers leading this expedition, you might think that the sciences are pretty well gender balanced. Unfortunately, you'd be wrong...
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