New treatments for illnesses could be lying under the sea

The oceans hold a treasure trove of microorganisms, animals and plants that might hold the cure or treatment for any number of diseases. — AFP

Some send divers in speed boats, others dispatch submersible robots to search the seafloor, and one team deploys a "mud missile" – all these are tools used by scientists to scour the world's oceans for the next potent cancer treatment or antibiotic.

A medicinal molecule could be found in microbes scooped up in sediment, be produced by porous sponges or sea squirts (barrel-bodied creatures that cling to rocks or the undersides of boats), or by bacteria living symbiotically in a snail.