A research team led by Professor Eijiro Miyako at the Graduate School of Advanced Science and Technology, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), has discovered that the marine bacterium Photobacterium angustum demonstrates remarkable therapeutic efficacy against colorectal cancer.

Through screening of multiple marine bacterial strains, the researchers found that P. angustum, in its natural, non-engineered form, selectively accumulates in tumor tissues and induces both direct tumor lysis and robust immune activation. In mouse models, intravenously administered P. angustum showed high tumor tropism while exhibiting minimal colonization of vital organs except the liver, with no hematological abnormalities or histological toxicity observed.

Furthermore, P. angustum therapy promoted intratumoral infiltration of immune cells including T cells, B cells, and neutrophils, and enhanced production of inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interferon-γ (IFN-γ). The bacterium also demonstrated intrinsic oncolytic activity through natural exotoxin production, directly destroying cancer cells. These combined mechanisms significantly prolonged survival in treated mice, with complete remission achieved in some cases.

This research represents a critical advance toward developing safer, more biocompatible cancer immunotherapies that do not rely on genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

The study has been accepted for publication in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, a leading international journal in the field of cancer immunotherapy.

Inuit in Greenland possess a unique genome, which has evolved over thousands of years as they adapted to a cold climate and consumed a diet largely consisting of marine mammals. Now, a team of international scientists has revealed how these genetic adaptations influence circulating protein levels in the blood and may modify their risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease today.

In July 2025, IUCN formally launched the MCSG within its Species Survival Commission, co-chaired by Professor Gilbert and Raquel Peixoto (KAUST / ISME). This came out of a meeting that Professor Gilbert led in May of conservation experts and microbiologists to define the premise of conservation in a microbial world. 

This is the first global coalition dedicated to safeguarding microbial biodiversity, which is the ‘invisible 99% of life’, to ensure that microbes are recognized as essential to the planet’s ecological, climate, and health systems.

20 November 2025 / Kiel. So far, the ocean has helped to buffer global warming by absorbing more than 90 per cent of the excess heat trapped in the Earth system by the anthropogenic greenhouse effect. A new modelling study by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel has now examined how the ocean might respond if atmospheric carbon dioxide was drastically reduced in the future. The results show that, after centuries of cooling, the Southern Ocean could trigger renewed warming by releasing the stored heat back into the atmosphere. Whether this would occur as a single major “heat burp”, in many smaller pulses, or continuously over centuries remains unclear. The study has now been published in AGU Advances.