Allen Dearry Ph.D.
OCEANS AND HUMAN HEALTH
Allen Dearry, Ph.D.
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences,
National Institutes of Health
Oceans have become conduits for a number of environmental threats to human health. At the same time, oceans harbor diverse organisms that show great promise for providing new drugs to combat cancer and fight infectious diseases. To guard against such health threats and to take advantage of the medicinal benefits that oceans might provide, the impacts of the oceans on human health must be more fully explored and new research efforts directed to this area. Hence, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) joined together to bridge their respective expertise in biomedical and oceanographic sciences to address the interplay between marine processes and public health.
NIEHS and NSF are now supporting a coordinated set of Centers on Oceans and Human Health (COHH), focused on three primary research areas: harmful algal blooms; water- and vector-borne diseases; and marine-derived pharmaceuticals and probes. These Centers will provide for a national network of investigators and will foster an interconnected research approach dedicated to understanding the physical, chemical, and biological complexities linking oceans and human health. This novel, groundbreaking interagency effort fulfills one of the key recommendations of the recent report of the US Commission on Ocean Policy: to encourage interdisciplinary marine biomedical research to improve our understanding of the links between oceans and human health.