ud and sponges probably
don’t feature highly
on most scuba divers’
bucket lists. But scientist and
explorer Brian Murphy, based
at the University of Illinois at
Chicago, has his sights set on
the sediments lurking at the
bottom of lakes and the gooey
animals clinging to submerged
shipwrecks. And for good reason.
He recently brought back a blob
of mud from Lake Michigan and
found it contained bacteria that
make two previously unknown
molecules. Lab tests showed
that this class of compounds
is lethal to the bacterium that
causes tuberculosis, a disease that
existing drugs are struggling with.
“For millions of years bacteria have
fought one another,” says Murphy.
“We’re just harnessing that power.”
Around the world, superbugs
are on the rise. Earlier this year,
two patients in the US were
discovered with strains of E. coli
that’s resistant to many antibiotics,
including drugs that doctors only
use as a last resort. It’s an alarming
trend in which bacteria are gaining
the upper hand in their battle
against the antibiotics we use to
kill them, hastened by the world’s
overuse of these drugs.
“The way to combat drug
resistance is to find new chemistry,”
says Murphy. He’s one of many
modern-day prospectors who are
searching for that new chemistry
underwater.PLUMBING THE DEPTHS
From icy polar seas to scorching
hydrothermal vents, and from coral
reefs to inland lakes, the vast,
aquatic realms covering seven-
tenths of our planet are home toAntibiotics are losing their
effectiveness against
disease. But the world’s
waters could be full of new
drugs, just waiting to be
discovered
WORDS: HELEN SCALES4
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