Photo: Ocean Fisheries Canada DFO Sponges are remarkable organisms. Not only are they able to become very old (the oldest living specimen is 11,000 years old!), they also hold all manner of interesting substances: against viruses, bacteria, tumours and so forth. The sponge’s medicine cabinet is worth its weight in gold. But, you must be able to get it to divide in a controlled manner. And this was impossible until recently.
Breakthrough
Wageningen scientists have managed to achieve this. Researcher Kylie van Deinsen-Hesp recently obtained her PhD on this study, with a dissertation entitled Dawn of a New Era in Sponge Biotechnology. The development of a new cell line is nothing short of a breakthrough in sponge-land. It opens the way for the production of countless new medicines.
The medium provides an excellent basis. It will have to be optimized per sponge type.
Kylie van Deinsen-Hesp, PhD
Van Deinsen-Hesp successfully managed to achieve this with the Geodia barretti, a common deepsea sponge. She used a substrate based on a well-known growth medium for animal cells. Nothing special, in fact, but sponge cells appeared to be able to divide in it. In follow-up steps, the growth medium was optimized to the extent that it allowed for a continuous division.
Further research shows that the addition of PHA, in particular, is crucial. Deinsen-Hesp: ‘this is a substance from the plant world known to prompt animal cells to divide. A growth factor, so to speak.’ The question is whether the growth medium works for all types of sponges. Deinsen-Hesp: ‘The medium provides an excellent basis. It will have to be optimized per sponge type.’
Barrettine
The Geodia barretti produces barrettine, among other things, which is an anti-inflammatory substance and which prevents biomaterial from attaching to, for example, ships (anti-fouling). The sponge can be edited using CRISPR-Cas technology, Deinsen-Hesp showed. ‘If you know what genes are involved in the production of bio-active substances, you can use CRISPR to improve these cells.’
Deinsen-Hesp’s research was part of the European SponGES-project, which studies the use of sponges in, among other things, biotechnology. Geodia barretti is one of the sponges that occur in Northern Atlantic waters.