“The world is a complex system of biodiversity, individual components interacting, giving and taking from one another. As we begin to truly understand this concept, we can begin to harness the power of living in symbiosis with our environment.” Take seaweed, for instance. Researchers at the University of Wollongong (UOW) in Australia have been farming and processing seaweeds that will then be used biomaterials such as cell carriers in medical implants.
Seaweed extracts are already commonly used in variety of goods such as toothpaste, paint, and ice cream. However, research in the field of glycobiology (the study of complex sugars called glycans in living organisms) is showing that seaweed has a major role to play in the development on new and biologically active materials for medical treatments.