Echo
Bacteria in Lake Huron sinkholes may hold keys to new cancer treatments, antibiotics
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By Sarah Coefield
coefield@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
July 16, 2009
The colorful cyanobacteria coating the sinkholes in Lake Huron may be ancient, but researchers are hoping they will provide new medicines for cancer and infection treatments. Cyanobacteria produce a plethora of complex molecules. Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration asked Dave Sherman to take a look at the bacteria to see if he could find any hints of medical applications. He did. Sherman, the Hans W. Vahlteich Professor in the Life Sciences Institute in the department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Michigan, studies chemicals produced by microbial organisms and looks for molecules that can fight cancer and infection.