Antarctic Sea Squirt Toxin Killed Melanoma in Mice
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- University of South Florida researchers returned from a six-week Antarctic expedition collecting ascidians (sea squirts) whose bacterial toxins showed promise against melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.
- USF chemistry professor Bill Baker said the toxins killed melanoma cells in mice without killing the mice, demonstrating "physiological properties to act like a drug" and clearing early safety hurdles.
- Baker said the team needs grams of the toxin to proceed to larger mouse studies, other animal models, and potentially human trials — a long pathway of regulated, expanding clinical studies.
- Divers on the NSF-funded expedition descended to depths of up to 130ft for roughly half-hour dives, contending with ice, leopard seals, shifting seas, and limited visibility, according to diving safety officer Ben Meister.
- Laboratory development will continue through partnerships Baker's department has built with the Desert Research Institute and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
- Baker flagged a supply bottleneck: a basketball-sized collection of ascidians yields only one-thousandth of the needed toxin, making synthetic reproduction — not Antarctic harvesting — essential before human trials.
Why it matters: Melanoma kills roughly 8,000 Americans a year, and Baker's team now faces a supply problem rather than a discovery problem: a basketball-sized haul of sea squirts yields one-thousandth of the toxin needed for expanded animal studies, so synthetic reproduction in the lab is the make-or-break next step before any human trial of this naturally derived compound.
