Empowered Patient Podcast Unlocking Secrets of the Ocean for Marine-Based Research and Drug Discovery with Ed Esquenazi Sirenas
Ed Esquenazi, Founder and CEO of Sirenas, is exploring the chemistry of marine organisms to accelerate drug discovery. Marine-based scientific elements are still poorly understood but have the potential to produce unique and useful compounds for drug development. There are stark differences between land-based organisms and marine-based organisms, which have evolved for much longer and, therefore, offer more diverse and complex chemistry. Using AI and machine learning, Sirenas has identified cancer-killing agents, anti-infective agents, and anti-inflammatory compounds from marine organisms and is developing marine-based personal care products.
Ed explains, "We go out into the ocean, collect samples, we bring them back. We understand the different chemistry being produced in these organisms, identify and catalog it very carefully using instrumentation, and then figure out how that chemistry might impact biological systems, all with the goal of accelerating drug discovery. So the goal is to make the chemistry from marine organisms accessible to drug discovery."
"We discovered one of the most powerful antimalarials working with the Gates Foundation. We’ve also identified quite a few anti-inflammatory compounds. These are things that modulate the immune system in ways to dampen inflammation or, in some cases, actually accelerate inflammation. So, we’ve identified some of those with very interesting therapeutic paths."
"I think it’s a matter of diversity. A lot of the elements used in drug discovery traditionally have been based either on plants or bacteria, but land-based or synthetic, and they limit the diversity of the chemistry used in drug discovery. So, if you go into the ocean, you’re opening up a realm of very different components that can help accelerate the discovery of novel therapeutics."
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