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Dutch researchers Dr. Rene Wijffels, Dr. Ronald Osinga, and Cindy Stoffelen begin a long day in the lab.
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Dr. Ronald Osinga begins the dissociation of a sponge.
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Dr. Rene Wijffels and Cindy Stoffelen cut into a sponge sample.
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Click below to learn a bit more about this precious protected zone...
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Do you have a question
about the 'Keys to Cures'
expedition?
Send an email to
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"It was beautiful," said Wijffels, referring to the blue, although not-so-clear waters off Vaca Key. Beyond the tremendous diversity of fishes and coral, the water was also laden with a dense assortment of large and small sponges (which makes for happy scientists aboard).
"It is difficult to get sponges like this back home," Wijffels continued in accented yet impeccable English as he shed his wetsuit. "These are the freshest sponges I have ever been able to work with."
Wijffels and his colleagues are marine biotechnologists. In the Netherlands, they pass their days cultivating all kinds of cells in order to milk them for useful products: microalgae for vitamins, insect cells for crop-protecting viruses, sponges for medicinal compounds. I'm not talking about laboratory petri dishes either, this is large-scale commercial stuff!
However, the process starts small. On board the EDWIN LINK, they begin by dissociating a sponge...in this case the brilliant red-orange Teichaxinella. Once they have separated the sponge into its constituent cells, those cells are cultivated on board through an ingenious process borrowed directly from nature. Like a sponge anchored to the ocean floor, the individual sponge cells are anchored to minute particles. They are then grown just long enough to be frozen and packed for the dash to the Netherlands.
"It is important for us to be here," Wijffels went on to say. "Harbor Branch has one of the leading labs in cell culture. We are here to learn."
It is refreshing to see this open exchange of information in phamaceutical science, a field often dominated by secrecy. Wijffels hopes for continued cooperation between his institution and Harbor Branch. This mission, and the actions of everyone on board, certainly establishes the groundwork for such a partnership.
By late afternoon, our ship was in transit to a new sinkhole site 45 miles off the coast of Sombrero Key. We arrived in calm seas above the hole and launched the sub to search for more deep-sea invertebrates.
August 21, 7:01am, 10 miles southeast of Sombrero Key, Florida -- During the remainder of the mission, scientists will be conducting a biodiversity survey of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS), in conjunction with their continuing biomedical research.
Ben Richards, an observer from the FKNMS, joined yesterday's sub dive and viewed his sanctuary in an entirely different light. All of the knowledge uncovered by Harbor Branch during this week's biodiversity study will be shared with sanctuary scientists and decision-makers, helping them to make informed decisions about these protected waters.
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As the scuba teams work with their shallow-water samples, the arm of the JSL submersible moves in to collect a sample at 1,000 feet. (photo: S. Pomponi)
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CLICK HERE to learn more about
our correspondent, Mark Carroll.
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