Medicine from the Sea
Medicine from the Sea
Derek Bunkofske
Conservation Ecology ENVS 201
Charles Cole
Sea Changes: Medicine from the Sea
This was truly an amazing video that really made me realize just how amazing this planet really is, along with the special human beings that inhabit it. I know that sounds a little corny, but I don’t really know any other way of putting it. So many questions start to creep into my head after seeing something so incredible come from something that has been on this earth for how long? It really makes me think that we have only tapped into the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, of what is waiting to be discovered.
The movie starts out in the mountains of Hardangervidda, Norway where the story of biological treasures started in the middle of nowhere. The Swiss scientist Dr. Hans Peter Frey, a Sandoz biologist, stopped to take a photo and the result ended up saving thousands of lives. Dr. Hans collected a small sample from the soil which eventually produced the drug called “cyclosporine”. This drug reduces the risk of organ rejections after transplant surgeries and has revolutionized these procedures. The immunosuppressive effect of cyclosporine was discovered on January 31, 1972 by employees of Sandoz in Basel, Switzerland, in a screening test on immune suppression designed and implemented by Hartmann F. Stahelin, M.D. The success of cyclosporine in preventing organ rejection was shown in kidney transplants and in liver transplants. Cyclosporine was approved for use in 1983. Since then, it has been used to prevent and treat graft-versus-host reactions in bone marrow transplantation and to prevent rejection of kidney, heart, and liver transplants.
Next the film transitions from land to the sea because most of the Earth’s biodiversity is in its oceans. Pharmaceutical researchers are actively exploring the oceans I search of new substances that might be used to treat or cure diseases. Over 200,000 species of
Derek Bunkofske
Conservation Ecology ENVS 201
Charles Cole
Sea Changes: Medicine from the Sea
This was truly an amazing video that really made me realize just how amazing this planet really is, along with the special human beings that inhabit it. I know that sounds a little corny, but I don’t really know any other way of putting it. So many questions start to creep into my head after seeing something so incredible come from something that has been on this earth for how long? It really makes me think that we have only tapped into the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, of what is waiting to be discovered.
The movie starts out in the mountains of Hardangervidda, Norway where the story of biological treasures started in the middle of nowhere. The Swiss scientist Dr. Hans Peter Frey, a Sandoz biologist, stopped to take a photo and the result ended up saving thousands of lives. Dr. Hans collected a small sample from the soil which eventually produced the drug called “cyclosporine”. This drug reduces the risk of organ rejections after transplant surgeries and has revolutionized these procedures. The immunosuppressive effect of cyclosporine was discovered on January 31, 1972 by employees of Sandoz in Basel, Switzerland, in a screening test on immune suppression designed and implemented by Hartmann F. Stahelin, M.D. The success of cyclosporine in preventing organ rejection was shown in kidney transplants and in liver transplants. Cyclosporine was approved for use in 1983. Since then, it has been used to prevent and treat graft-versus-host reactions in bone marrow transplantation and to prevent rejection of kidney, heart, and liver transplants.
Next the film transitions from land to the sea because most of the Earth’s biodiversity is in its oceans. Pharmaceutical researchers are actively exploring the oceans I search of new substances that might be used to treat or cure diseases. Over 200,000 species of