Sensational Seasquirts

Listen to the SCIENCE SNAP

Script

My laboratory is the Great Barrier Reef. Although I’m a chemist, I combine my love of scuba diving with science. During a recent trip to Australia, I was diving for the humble seasquirt, a simple filter feeding creature that occurs in a myriad of colours. Seasquirts produce many interesting chemical compounds and in my research I hope to find whether any of these compounds can be used to treat diseases such as cancer or infections.

Why should seasquirts produce such molecules? Well, they don’t have immune systems, and use chemical compounds to deter disease compounds that may be of use to us, humans.

One of the many challenges I faced on this trip was setting-up a chemistry and molecular biology lab on board a ship! A lab that rocked, yawed and pitched. Who says that chemistry is boring?

Read more about this SCIENCE SNAP
Ask the Expert