{"id":19376,"date":"2026-07-15T12:56:52","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T16:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/?p=19376"},"modified":"2026-07-15T12:56:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T16:56:53","slug":"research-at-the-forefront","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/issues\/summer-2026\/research-at-the-forefront\/","title":{"rendered":"Research at the Forefront"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<style>\n.architecture .architecture-department:nth-child(1){\n    color: #999;\n    letter-spacing: 3px;\n    font-size: 1rem;\n    font-weight: 400;\n    margin-top: 2em;\n    margin-bottom: 0;\n}\n\n.architecture .architecture-department{\n\ttext-transform: uppercase;\n\tfont-family: Hind, Arial, sans-serif;\n}\n\n<\/style>\n\n<div class=\"architecture\">\n\t<p class=\"architecture-department\">Currents<\/p>\n\t<p class=\"architecture-department\">Momentum<\/p>\t\t\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Could Shipworms Hold a Key to New Antibiotics?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"573\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2026\/07\/su26_currents_momentum-1024x573.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19406\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2026\/07\/su26_currents_momentum-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2026\/07\/su26_currents_momentum-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2026\/07\/su26_currents_momentum-768x430.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2026\/07\/su26_currents_momentum-1536x860.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2026\/07\/su26_currents_momentum-2048x1146.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2026\/07\/su26_currents_momentum-364x204.jpg 364w, https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2026\/07\/su26_currents_momentum-500x280.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2026\/07\/su26_currents_momentum-1000x560.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2026\/07\/su26_currents_momentum-1280x717.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2026\/07\/su26_currents_momentum-2000x1120.jpg 2000w, https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2026\/07\/su26_currents_momentum.jpg 2560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"feature-caption\">Driftwood showing extensive boring by wood-eating shipworms. At 溏心vlog免费B站, assistant professor of pharmacy Bailey Miller has found that a symbiotic bacterium carried by shipworms produces metabolites that can be used in antibiotic therapies to treat dangerous infections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"type-intro\">A 溏心vlog免费B站 pharmacy professor has found a compound in a marine symbiotic bacterium that kills a notoriously antibiotic-resistant bacterium responsible for serious, sometimes lethal, infections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Scientists the world over are exploring natural environments in search of the next life-saving medications. At 溏心vlog免费B站, Bailey Miller, assistant professor of pharmacy, is exploring wood-eating shipworms and the symbiotic bacteria they carry. He has found that those bacteria produce metabolites that can be used in a therapeutic compound that kills <em>Acinetobacter baumannii<\/em>, a bacterium that can cause serious blood, urinary tract, and lung infections, especially in hospital settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c<em>Acinetobacter baumannii<\/em> is a very lethal infection that picks up resistance very easily and is very hard to kill,\u201d says Miller, who began his research at the University of Utah before joining 溏心vlog免费B站 in fall 2025. \u201cWe were able to find a compound made by these symbionts (marine shipworms and the symbiotic bacteria they carry) that effectively kills it. It works in animal models, not just in petri dishes. That\u2019s one example of a compound that came from this system that shows a lot of promise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Miller harvests marine shipworms\u2014not actual worms, but bivalve mollusks similar to clams\u2014from wood found in the ocean, including from the nets of a fishing boat in Narragansett Bay. The mollusks bore into the wood, create a den, and eat the wood\u2019s cellulose, which their symbiotic bacteria help them digest. Those bacteria produce metabolites, including turnercyclamycins, the chemical use for which Miller holds a federal patent as a co-creator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his own lab, along with a graduate student and three undergrads, Miller is working to identify and genetically engineer the bacterial strains harvested from the mollusks\u2019 gills. Through genomic analysis, the team has found several species and strains of bacteria that encode the genes to produce potentially new antibiotics. Their engineering efforts are aimed at turning on these genes to overproduce their products and characterize their bioactivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<section class=\"cl-wrapper cl-quote-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"cl-quote\">\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center quote-body-amplify\"><span style=\"font-family: Charter, serif;\"><em>The team has found several species and strains of bacteria that encode the genes to produce potentially new antibiotics.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re all coming from shipworm symbionts. The more we sequence, the more of this potential we find,\u201d says Miller, who previously worked with the Philippines Mollusk Symbiont International Cooperative Biodiversity Group, which focused largely on shipworms and their bacteria, spurring his research program. \u201cThere are hundreds of these new biosynthetic gene clusters, so there\u2019s a whole lot of potential that we\u2019ve not yet been able to isolate. We can do some genetic engineering to turn on these genes and see if they have some kind of utility\u2014antibiotic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory properties. We\u2019re looking to leverage biodiversity to find new drugs and trying to expand that research into new avenues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One offshoot of Miller\u2019s original work has the potential to reduce environmental waste while developing valuable compounds. Miller has found that the beneficial bacteria can grow on wastepaper, eating the cellulose in paper and dissolving the waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSo, it\u2019s this idea of doing waste valorization or green biotechnology,\u201d Miller says. \u201cMaybe we can produce a valuable antibiotic, and the main feedstock going into it is paper waste or corn husks. You add some sea water to the bacteria, mix with metals and minerals it needs, then put in wastepaper, and that paper will just dissolve. It\u2019s a potential way of mitigating waste and turning it into something that adds value.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u2014Patrick Luce \u201999<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"feature-caption photo-credit\">Photo: Michael C. Rygel via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Could shipworms hold a key to new antibiotics?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":19406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[363],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-summer-2026","architecture-currents","architecture-momentum-currents"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19376"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19612,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19376\/revisions\/19612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}