Editorial: Marine biotechnology: Emerging opportunities and future perspectives

The rapid growth of genetic, cellular and molecular technologies is enabling scientists to explore and develop marine resources for widespread applications in the food, medical, pharmaceutical, environmental and energy industries. marine biotechnology products and services were estimated at 2.8 billion euros in 2010, with a cumulative annual growth rate of 4-5% (marine board-european science foundation, 2010) the sultanate of oman occupies a strategic geographical position and has a coastline in excess of 3000km, with the arabian sea located to the south and the sea of oman and arabian gulf to the north.