Jetty has medicinal potential

WA Chief Scientist Peter Klinken believes there could be a future in marine medicine living under the Busselton Jetty.

Professor Klinken will be at the Jetty today to talk about the future of marine pharmacology in WA.

“I am very passionate about bioprospecting WA’s unique biodiversity to find new compounds that may act as antibiotics or anti-cancer drugs,” he said. “How incredible if one of WA’s big tourist attractions was also able to be major research centre for drug discovery.”

Research by UWA’s Dr Gavin Flematti has shown some sponges from WA waters contain a compound which can inhibit the growth of breast cancer cells when tested in the laboratory, while jetty marine scientist Sophie Teede has been looking at the potential of anti-cancer drugs being created from marine flora.

“There is a lot of evidence in Queensland, India and Singapore that shows the anti-tumour potential of marine algae based compounds,” she said.

“Busselton Jetty hosts over 300 different species of marine life, some with unique properties due to the shade, shelter and Leeuwin Current.”

Ms Teede said there were significant opportunities for aquaculture in sponge farming that could be sustainably grown for marine or medical products.

“Even nudibranchs, contain bioactive metabolites at the microbial and molecular level that can treat human cancer cell lines,” she said.

Professor Klinken and Ms Teede’s talk will be at 4pm at will be speaking on the topic on these opportunities at 4pm on May 3 in the Ballarat Room, of Railway House.

Busselton Jetty chief executive officer Lisa Shreeve said she was very excited by the possibility that the Jetty could contribute to innovative uses of marine products.

“We have been working with several universities on marine research projects but the future of marine medicine is the most exciting development in this field,” she said.