Stanford University chemist Paul Wender and his colleagues are working to improve treatments for cancer, HIV and Alzheimer’s—and they are betting that a drab, weedy marine invertebrate is the means to achieving that end. They have focused on this seemingly unremarkable organism, called Bugula neritina, because it cooperates with a bug in its gut to produce bryostatin (specifically, bryostatin-1), a molecule that can manipulate cellular activity in crucial and controllable ways.
Click here for original story, Work on rare molecule aims to enhance cell therapy and deliver functional cure for HIV
Source: Phys.org