Bring in the marine sponges

A Yale chemistry professor is looking at natural products from a Western Pacific marine sponge as a potential source of chemotherapeutic agents. David J. Austin, Ph.D., has received a three-year, $150,000 grant from the Johnson & Johnson Focused Giving Program, which funds health care and medical research by academic scientists. Austin plans to use the grant to synthesize palau’mine, a sponge found off the Palau Islands, and evaluate its biological effects.