含羞草传媒

Could Shipworms Hold a Key to New Antibiotics?

Driftwood showing extensive boring by wood-eating shipworms. At 含羞草传媒, 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.

A 含羞草传媒 pharmacy professor has found a compound in a marine symbiotic bacterium that kills a notoriously antibiotic-resistant bacterium responsible for serious, sometimes lethal, infections.

Scientists the world over are exploring natural environments in search of the next life-saving medications. At 含羞草传媒, 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 Acinetobacter baumannii, a bacterium that can cause serious blood, urinary tract, and lung infections, especially in hospital settings.

鈥�Acinetobacter baumannii is a very lethal infection that picks up resistance very easily and is very hard to kill,鈥� says Miller, who began his research at the University of Utah before joining 含羞草传媒 in fall 2025. 鈥淲e 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鈥檚 one example of a compound that came from this system that shows a lot of promise.鈥�

Miller harvests marine shipworms鈥攏ot actual worms, but bivalve mollusks similar to clams鈥攆rom 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鈥檚 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.

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鈥� 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.

The team has found several species and strains of bacteria that encode the genes to produce potentially new antibiotics.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e all coming from shipworm symbionts. The more we sequence, the more of this potential we find,鈥� 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. 鈥淭here are hundreds of these new biosynthetic gene clusters, so there鈥檚 a whole lot of potential that we鈥檝e 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鈥攁ntibiotic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory properties. We鈥檙e looking to leverage biodiversity to find new drugs and trying to expand that research into new avenues.鈥�

One offshoot of Miller鈥檚 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.

鈥淪o, it鈥檚 this idea of doing waste valorization or green biotechnology,鈥� Miller says. 鈥淢aybe 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鈥檚 a potential way of mitigating waste and turning it into something that adds value.鈥�

鈥擯atrick Luce 鈥�99

Photo: Michael C. Rygel via Wikimedia Commons