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	How can a sea squirt teach us about the transmission of HIV?

	The retina of the skate is yielding clues to degenerative eye diseases in humans.

	This animal is shedding light on everything from reproduction to birth defects.

Why Study Marine Organisims for Biomedical Research?

Why do scientists spend valuable research time studying the biology of simple marine organisms while devastating diseases like cancer and AIDS assault our species? How can primitive sea creatures help us solve human medical problems?

Biologists value marine organisms because they serve as excellent models: simple versions of more complex organisms. Studying life processes in marine animals, scientists learn how the same events occur in the human body -- and how they go awry when disease strikes.

Few people realize that research on simple marine organisms has led to some of our greatest medical advances. Studies of the sea urchin, for example -- many of which were carried out at the MBL -- laid the scientific foundation for such advanced reproductive technologies as test tube fertilization.

Today, research at the MBL is helping scientists solve medical puzzles as diverse as:



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