Scientists Search Coastline for New Cures

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Yachts are made for more than luxury. This team of scientists are trekking up Florida's Atlantic coast searching for new discoveries of healing species. There are thousands of unknown species living beneath the water that may potentially cure diseases and serve as vital solutions to today's medical mysteries. This article follows the research team's travels and discoveries.

A team of scientists has begun collecting the genomes of sea creatures off the Florida coast in the hopes that unmapped species, some of which have the capacity to reverse disease and injury in themselves, may hold the key to new treatments for humans. Of about 250,000 marine species identified so far, scientists have sequenced the genetic material of only about three dozen, according to University of Florida neuroscientist Leonid Moroz. To speed up the process of making potential new discoveries, a team led by Moroz used a yacht loaded with a fully equipped genomic laboratory to do the sequencing on the ocean in real time.

— Genetic Yacht Lab Maps Sea Life