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Clues in Unlikely Places
The spotted, slimy creature curled around Peter Anderson’s hand doesn’t look like a medical marvel, but this lowly sea slug could hold the key to diseases from Parkinson’s to Alzheimer’s.
“The molecules implicated in Alzheimer’s are present in sea slugs,” says Anderson, director of the University of Florida’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience. “What we’re trying to determine is, ‘How does it learn?’ ‘How does it forget?’ And, ‘What are the genes being turned on and off when that occurs?’”
The sea slug is one of the marine animals that researchers at the Whitney Lab study to gain insight into human neurology. Research like the sea slug genome study, conducted by Dr. Leonid Moroz, may translate to improved understanding of the human brain. More so than the lab rats most people associate with medical research, marine animals’ simplified neurological systems make them good models for neurological studies.
“A jellyfish nervous system works the same way ours does, by-and-large, it’s just a lot simpler,” Anderson says. “It’s kind of humbling.”
Marine animals’ nerve cells are also easier to locate. The sea slug’s nerve cells are up to a millimeter in diameter and can be seen with the naked eye, making it much easier for scientists to pinpoint the cell they want to study.
“I liken it to the difference between a barrel of M&Ms and a box of chocolates. Marine animals are like the box of chocolates — it’s easy to find the particular nerve cell you want to work with. With mammals — the M&Ms — all of the nerve cells in an area look exactly the same. You can’t go back to the same one day after day.”
Other biomedical projects under way at Whitney include Dr. Dirk Bucher’s study of the neural circuits that control rhythmic, repetitive motions like walking, which could eventually help patients healing from spinal cord injuries, and Barbara-Anne Battelle’s investigation of horseshoe crab retinas, which could lead to advances in treatment for patients with low vision.
“These studies epitomize what we’re about,” Anderson says. “We’re here to take advantage of the opportunities these animals have to offer.”
