Omics, synthetic biology and biotechnology in Australian marine science

The ocean supports Australia's health and prosperity. While it offers resources and is critical to regulating the biosphere, it is vast and complex, making it challenging to understand the processes that sustain ocean life, identify best management practices, and ensure sustainable resource use. We need new and more effective ways to observe, understand and manipulate the ocean and its resources. Fuelled by technical developments from medicine and agriculture, omics, synthetic biology, and biotechnologies (OSB) enable high-resolution measurement and manipulation of biological systems from cellular to ecosystem scales. Already Australian researchers, managers and industries are deploying these fast-evolving technologies to solve challenges from fisheries stock assessments and pest surveillance to aquaculture breeding. Yet, there is potential to create greater impact if we prioritise investment in infrastructure, data systems, computational capacity, workforce development, and cross-sector collaboration. In this review, we profile leading OSB technologies, their primary application areas, and outline strategic investment priorities for OSB in Australia's marine domain. We argue that coordinated national leadership is essential to translate emerging capability into operational impact. Without such coordination, Australia risks underutilising transformative technologies that can underpin long-term ocean stewardship and a sustainable blue economy.