Stealth. 2006 Dec 11. The Key to Finding New Cures?. <http://development.pharyngula.org/the_key_to_finding_new_cures/>. Accessed 2008 Aug 30.

Posted on M00o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr on Monday, December 11, 2006

The Key to Finding New Cures?

Here is an interesting article that talks about how the genome of a sea urchin is very similar to that of humans and how sea urchins may hold the keys to finding cures for diseases as well as preventing them. Researchers at the Sea Urchin Sequencing Group, have not to long ago, completed the sequencing of the sea urchin genome. They found that the purple sea urchin has 23,300 genes. Of these 23,300 genes, purple sea urchins have 7,000 genes in common with us humans. The really cool thing though is that they share the some of the same genes that are known to be linked to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease to name a few. Unlike humans, sea urchins only have one type of immune system and that is the one they are born with. This is significant because some sea urchins can live for a very long time and in order to do so they must have a very strong immune system. In fact it is 10 to 20 times larger than humans in terms of genes. With this scientists, hope to find new antibiotics and agents that they can use to fight off viruses