Samara Freemark
Source: The Environment Report [1]
February 4, 2010

Making medicine from things found in nature isn't a new idea. Think, aspirin—which originally came from the bark of willow trees. Now drugs derived from ocean animals are slowly making their way onto shelves. Samara Freemark talks to a researcher who helps get them there:

Mark Slattery is trying to find a cure for cancer. Slattery is a pharmacology professor at the University of Mississippi. But he doesn't really spend much time in the lab. Instead, he's usually in a wetsuit, scuba diving off the coasts of places like Guam and Antarctica.

He's taking samples from tens of thousands of corals and sponges. He's looking for that one special species that might make a chemical that could cure disease. He calls it, ‘diving for cures.'

To listen to or read a transcript of the full story, click here [2].