Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 22 February 2018
Scientists in Germany improve malaria drug production

By DAVID RISING to produce the drug more "This development has the
Associated Press efficiently, chemist Kerry potentiation to save mil-
BERLIN (AP) — Scientists in Gilmore said. lions of lives by increasing
Germany who developed "We're able to get much the global access and re-
a new way to make a key more out of the plant than ducing the cost of anti-ma-
malaria drug several years ever before," he said. "The laria medicine," Peter See-
ago said Wednesday they process we have now is berger, director of the Max
have come up with a tech- more efficient and signifi- Planck Institute unit working
nique to make the process cantly cheaper than what on the issue.
even more efficient, which we had in 2012." The researchers are work-
should increase global ac- The World Health Organiza- ing with the US. state of
cess and reduce the cost. tion reported in November Kentucky on a pilot proj-
The new procedure refines that there were 216 million ect to start an operation
a method developed in malaria cases worldwide in where sweet wormwood is
2012 at the Max Planck 2016, up 5 million over 2015, cultivated on thousands of
Institute to use the waste In this Feb. 1, 2012 file photo, Prof. Peter Seeberger, a former and 445,000 people died acres and then processed
product from the produc- Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor poses with a of the disease, primarily on site into the anti-malaria
tion of artemisinin, which molecule model at his laboratory in Berlin, Germany. children. Artemisinin-based drug. The target is to have it
is extracted from a plant Associated Press therapies are considered operational in three years,
known as sweet worm- the waste acid into artemis- the plant's own chloro- the best treatment, but of- Gilmore said.
wood, to produce the drug inin itself, producing more phyll instead of additional ten cost far too much for "We will have the entire
itself. That involved a new of the drug from what had chemicals as catalysts to many of the impoverished supply chain under one
machine that could con- in the past been discarded. drive the reaction, directly communities worst hit by roof, going from plants to
vert about 40 percent of The new procedure uses using the crude materials malaria. pill," he said.q

Was pirate Black Invasive bloody red shrimp

Sam Bellamy found? discovered in Lake Superior

DNA test could tell MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — An a ship's ballast water, said have on Lake Superior.

invasive species with a jar-
Jeremy Bates, an aquatic "They do form swarms and
ring name has turned up in invasive species specialist can look intimidating. But
Cod shipwreck belongs to Lake Superior: the bloody with the Wisconsin Depart- since there's only been
the infamous pirate Samuel red shrimp. Researchers ment of Natural Resources. one found we don't know
"Black Sam" Bellamy. found a single specimen of It's also possible the one whether or not it's really a
The Whydah (WIH'-duh) Pi- the tiny shrimp in a sample specimen found was al- widespread introduction
rate Museum in Yarmouth, collected from the Duluth- ready dead before it was or if this is just something
Massachusetts, publicly dis- Superior harbor last summer dumped, said Doug Jen- where one happened to
played the bone Monday. as part of routine surveil- sen, invasive species spe- get up here," Bates told
In this Aug. 14, 2017 photo, It was found near what's lance for invasive species, cialist with the Sea Grant Minnesota Public Radio .
Marie Kesten Zahn, an ar- believed to be Bellamy's the U.S. Fish and Wildlife program at the University While they could compete
chaeologist and education pistol. The objects were Service said. That means of Minnesota Duluth. There with other zooplankton-
coordinator at the Whydah pulled from the Whydah there are now document- are still no indications that eating fish, they could also
Pirate Museum in West Yar- ed findings of bloody red the shrimp, which grow up represent a new food for
mouth, Mass., probes the Gally (GAH'-lee) shipwreck shrimp in all of the Great to half an inch long, have fish species that eat native
concretion surrounding a leg several years ago. Lakes. They were first found become established in freshwater shrimp. "That's
bone that was salvaged from The museum has enlisted
the Whydah shipwreck off the forensic scientists to extract in Lake Ontario and Lake Lake Superior. The Fish and more or less unknown," Jen-
coast of Wellfleet on Cape DNA and compare it with Michigan in 2006. Bloody Wildlife Service said in its sen told the Star Tribune.
Cod. DNA from a living Bellamy red shrimp, which can be announcement last week And it's not at all certain
Associated Press descendant. Testing will ivory-yellow or translucent that the species, like other that the species will be-
take about a month. with varying red pigmenta- invasive species, has the come established in Lake
YARMOUTH, Mass. (AP) The Whydah sank in 1717. tion in the upper body and potential to out-compete Superior, he said. More
— Researchers are work- The wreck was discovered toward the tail, are native native species and disrupt than one would have to
ing to use DNA to identify in 1984. Most of its treasure to the Caspian Sea, which food webs. But the other arrive, survive, successfully
whether a human bone is thought to remain on the sits between Europe and scientists said it's not clear compete for food and find
recovered from a Cape ocean floor.q Asia. The species may have yet how big an impact the mates to breed. That's a tall
reached Lake Superior in bloody red shrimp might order, he said.q