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Three species of bacteria from genus Salinospora
Three species of bacteria from the genus Salinospora growing on agar culture plates.
These bacteria, which had never been observed until 2001, are major microbial inhabitants in marine sediments from the deep oceans. It can be estimated that perhaps 10,000 species of these microbes will ultimately be harvested from the marine environment. This is important because testing these microbes for their affects against diseases and cancer has shown that they, like the bacteria in soil, produce antibiotics and anticancer agents. Because these are genetically and environmentally unique--and have never been seen or studied before--they represent an enormous resource for the discovery of new drugs. For example, one strain of these bacteria has been shown to produce a very powerful anticancer agent called salinosporamide A. Many of the drugs that have been in use for a long time have developed a resistance and are no longer as effective. We are in need of an entirely new group of antibiotics. The massive areas encompassed by the deep oceans represent a new biomedical resource of massive proportion.
This image was taken during research conducted by William Fenical, a professor of oceanography at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and his team. Fenical's many research projects can require support from both the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NSF support is used for the environmental exploration side of his work and then, for example, if a project turns from fundamental marine chemical ecology to biomedicine, the research then receives support from NIH (NSF does not support direct biomedical research).
Credit: Valerie Paul
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