Marine life could help fight malaria in the future

An Australian research team is attempting to discover if ocean-based treatments can help the global fight against malaria.

The team from Brisbane's Eskitis Institute for Cell and Molecular Therapies is testing marine invertebrates from the Great Barrier Reef for their effectiveness in fighting the disease, reports The Age newspaper

Scientists from the institute claim a chemical structure that targets the malaria parasite could be present in some marine plants and animals.

Professor Ron Quinn, project leader, told the newspaper that samples from over 200,000 species of marine wildlife are being stored in a "nature bank" for analysis.

"Once we've got all the results from screening, we can go back and say this came from a sea slug and can do a lot more tests and see exactly what it is in the slug that actually killed the malaria parasite," explained Professor Quinn.

The World Health Organisation estimates that over one million people die from malaria every year.