UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography have discovered a way to more efficiently develop potential drugs from ocean bacteria.
The full article can be found at http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/Jan/24/ucsd-scripps-moore-yamanaka/.
Essentially, researchers using ocean bacteria, which can not be grown in a lab, developed a new method to create previously unknown biological processes. These new processes produce antibiotics which can be used to fight bacterium, such as MRSA.
Students who join us on our Sea Life Adventures, Ocean Classrooms, and youth fishing trips learn a simplified version of this story. We emphasize the ocean’s importance to life on earth and our duty to keep it healthy. While the story may be simplified, the main point we teach children is that the ocean is a resource filled with abundant life, both large and small, and we are continuing to learn about its potential. The students onboard the Sea Star may one day become researchers at SIO and create lifesaving drugs.
We are thankful to have the researchers practically in our backyard just 3o minutes south of Oceanside harbor. The bright minds in La Jolla are a resource locally, nationally, and internationally.