Canadian researchers are collecting mud from Frobisher Bay, near Iqaluit, to see if that mud has tiny microbes that could be used in face creams or cancer-fighting drugs, reports CBC News.
The research is the latest in aquatic bioprospecting, in which researchers seek marine micro-organisms with "bioactive compounds" that could be added to natural health-care products and cosmetics.
Much of the world's bioprospecting to date has taken place in tropical climates, but there is a growing body of work from northern locations, said Russell Kerr, who is leading the research in Frobisher Bay.
"Going up to the Arctic really represents the next really exciting steps for us," Kerr, who heads up the University of Prince Edward Island's Marine Natural Products Lab, told CBC. "Nobody has looked at, certainly, Canada's North in terms of the natural product potential of microbes.
"We view this as the first of a great many trips over the next many, many years to really try to get, initially, an understanding of what microbes are there. And concurrent with that, what sorts of natural products might these microbes be able to produce that could be of value in human health, animal health, cosmetic industry, and so on and so forth."
Kerr told CBC the team will collect Frobisher Bay mud using a device that drops like an anchor and has a scoop at the end.
"It looks like a missile," Kerr said of the device. "It'll be interesting bringing this through customs or at airport security."
Kerr said the scientific community wants to identify some of the microbes in Canada's North soon, before they are threatened by climate change.
While it is rare for aquatic bioprospecting to uncover the next cancer-fighting drug ingredient, Kerr said the research can find bioactive compounds for other health-care products.
Kerr told CBC that his group would hold the patents for any biological discoveries, as is standard practice, but that he will approach local groups to discuss the potential value of what lies in Frobisher Bay's mud.
