Deep-sea organism helps tumor-targeting scientists at MSU

At the bottom of the Pacific Ocean lives a heat-loving organism that has become valuable to Montana State University researchers. Thriving some 85,800 feet below the surface of the sea, the organism produces hollow protein cages that are so small that 7,000 would fit on the edge of a human hair.

Copies of that protein are now being used by MSU scientists who want to engineer them to deliver drugs to tumors, says MSU graduate student Michelle Flenniken. She wrote an article on their work that was published Monday, Feb. 27, in the scientific journal Chemistry and Biology.

By Evelyn Boswell

Full Story: http://www.montana.edu/cpa/news/nwview.php?article=3449