New Cancer Fighting Discovery Made At UC San Diego

A deep-sea bacterium may be a big step in fighting cancer. According to a press release from UC San Diego, researchers at UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography discovered that an enzyme called SalC is an anti-cancer "warhead."

“Now that scientists understand how this enzyme makes the salinosporamide A warhead, that discovery could be used in the future to use enzymes to produce other types of salinosporamides that could attack not only cancer but diseases of the immune system and infections caused by parasites,” said co-author Bradley Moore, a Distinguished Professor at Scripps Oceanography and the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

This discovery has been a long-time in the making. The microbe was first collected from sediments of the tropical Atlantic Ocean in 1990. “This has been a very challenging 10-year project,” said Moore, who is Katherine Bauman’s (lead author) advisor. “Kate’s been able to bring together 10 years’ worth of earlier work to get us across the finish line.” 

To read the full press release, click here.