The Ocean's Innovative Solutions to Medical Issues
Written by JD Moon
About the Author:
Hey, I’m JD Moon from Southern California. I love painting, reading, playing tennis, and yapping about Netflix shows. If I’m nowhere to be found I’ll probably be blasting music on my headphones and manifesting myself into Spiderman Into the Spiderverse. I go to Fairmont Prep and hope to learn more about medicine in the future to become a sleep-deprived and mentally insane healthcare worker.
The Importance of Marine Organisms in Medicine:
Marine organisms remain one of the most under-explored species on Earth due to their environments, often characterized by skull-crushing pressures, freezing temperatures, and complete darkness. In fact, we know more about the multiverse than we know about the creatures of the deep! But what we do know is that they have immense potential to revolutionize modern medicine. The pharmaceutical industry is still developing and improving medications like anti-cancer drugs, painkillers, and diagnostic tools to fit the evolving health needs of modern society. Marine creatures have unique chemicals, compounds, and symbiotic bacteria that have proven invaluable in enhancing modern medicine. Organisms like sea cucumbers, cone snails, and horseshoe crabs have provided groundbreaking insights into advancing therapies and medicines.
Let’s take a closer look at some current marine-inspired medicines. The cone snail has a toxin that can be manipulated to be used as a synthetic, non-opioid painkiller. A specific component of the venom was used to develop ziconotide, a strong painkiller that has been approved to treat severe chronic pain.
Horseshoe crab blood has been used in detecting bacterial contamination of medical devices. It was discovered that its blood will clot or gelatinize with a very minuscule amount of endotoxin. Scientists have developed a bacteria test using this blood that is much more sensitive and less expensive than previous tests. It significantly improved the sterility of medical procedures, giving more assurance of successful surgical operations.
Sea cucumber-inspired flexible micro-electrodes are used to reverse the effects of stiffness. These electrodes have been used to treat the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, strokes, and spinal cord injuries.
These marine animals have made major advancements in the field of medicine, and still many more possibilities await in the ocean’s depths. We have not even scratched the surface of all the unique organisms of the deep, and even the marvels we have already encountered are yet to be fully utilized. As our understanding of current and emerging medical needs continues to evolve, perhaps looking towards the creatures that have roamed this Earth—or ocean—much longer than we will hold the remedy to our medical challenges.
