Marine National Facility

BACKGROUND: We sought to assess whether GFS, a proprietary preparation of Tasmanian Undaria pinnatifida, has effects on healing or re-emergence of Herpetic infections, and additionally, to assess effects of GFS in vitro. Undaria is the most commonly eaten seaweed in Japan, and contains sulphated polyanions and other components with potential anti-viral activity. Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infections have lower reactivation rates and Herpes type 2 (HSV-2) infections have lower incidence in Japan than in the west. METHODS: Patients with active (15 subjects) or latent (6 subjects) Herpetic infections (HSV-1, 2, EBV, Zoster) were monitored for response to ingestion of GFS. GFS extract was tested in vitro for human T cell mitogenicity and anti-Herpes activity. RESULTS: Ingestion of GFS was associated with increased healing rates in patients with active infections. In addition, patients with latent infection remained asymptomatic whilst ingesting GFS. GFS extract inhibited Herpes viruses in vitro and was mitogenic to human T cells in vitro. CONCLUSIONS: Ingestion of GFS has inhibitory effects on reactivation and is associated with increased rate of healing after Herpetic outbreaks. GFS extract potently inhibited Herpes virus in vitro, and had mitogenic effects on human T cells.

Marine systems across the globe are experiencing myriad pressures with consequences for their health, management and the industries and communities that depend on them. Critical to improved management of our oceans and coasts is effective education and communication that ultimately leads to improved societal value of the world’s oceans. In Australia, the national scientific research agency, CSIRO, operates critical national research infrastructure such as the Marine National Facility (MNF), which also plays an important role in marine education, training and communication. The MNF Outreach Program seeks to strategically engage the community in marine science, identifying audience segments and developing programs, activities and content to meet their specific information needs. The program is structured around three specific audience segments: Purpose Seekers, Nurturers and Lifelong Learners. With both at-sea and shore-based activities and programs including the Indigenous Time at Sea Scholarship, CAPSTAN sea-training, Educator on Board, Floating Classroom, live ship-to-shore crosses and media and social media programming, the MNF Outreach program delivers meaningful engagement through experiential learning opportunities, rather than simply addressing knowledge deficits. As marine issues are varied and complex, marine communication and education approaches must be equally multifaceted, and a successful outreach program will have a spectrum of activities of varying resource intensity (such as cost, time and appropriately skilled personnel) which are matched to clear target audience segments. With increasing recognition of the importance of science communication in informing science literacy and policy, publicly funded national research facilities have an essential role to play by shifting from traditional research-only roles to also provide for targeted education and outreach.

Rapid development and deployment of marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) approaches will be required to prevent the worst consequences of climate change and meet national treaty obligations under the Paris agreement. However, approaches to monitor the efficacy and environmental safety of mCDR are not being developed with the same intensity as the technology. Verification will be required to convince a sceptical public and regulatory community of the overall benefit of mCDR as well as provide the regulatory community a basis for risk assessments that will be required for at scale deployments. In this perspective, we posit that genomics-based approaches can be used to assess the efficacy of carbon sequestration and monitor for the possibility of unintended consequences. By adopting these approaches, it will be feasible to develop the evidence portfolio necessary to underpin assessments of the risks, benefits and trade-offs involved in responsible deployment of mCDR.