KINGSTON, R.I.–June 2, 2026–Scientists the world over are contemplating the question, exploring natural environments in search of the next life-saving medications. That includes the University of Rhode Island, where College of Pharmacy Assistant Professor Bailey Miller is leveraging the chemical diversity and biosynthetic potential of marine microbial symbionts to yield new therapeutics for hard-to-kill bacterial pathogens and disease-causing parasites.

Miller is finding success working with wood-eating marine shipworms and the symbiotic bacteria they carry, which produce secondary metabolites that have potential applications as pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining URI, Miller discovered the antibiotic turnercyclamycins in the gills of shipworms, finding it can kill the lethal, drug-resistant infection Acinetobacter baumannii, which can cause serious infections in wounds, blood, urinary tracts, and lungs.

“Acinetobacter baumannii is a very lethal infection that picks up resistance very easily and is very hard to kill,” said Miller, who began his research at the University of Utah before joining URI in fall 2025. “We were able to find a compound made by these symbionts that effectively kills it. It works in animal models, not just in petri dishes. That’s one example of a compound that came from this system that shows a lot of promise.”

Miller harvests marine shipworms—not actual worms, but bivalve mollusks similar to clams—from wood found in the ocean, including from the nets of a fishing boat in Narragansett Bay. The mollusks bore into a piece of wood to create a den, eating the cellulose in the wood, which their symbiotic bacteria help them digest. Those bacteria produce multiple metabolites including turnercyclamycins, the chemical use for which Miller holds a federal patent as a co-creator.

In his own lab, along with a graduate student and three undergrads, Miller is working to identify and genetically engineer the bacterial strains harvested from the mollusks’ gills. Through genomic analysis, the team has found several species and strains of the bacteria that encode the genes to produce potentially new antibiotics. Their engineering efforts are aimed at turning on these genes to overproduce their products and characterize their bioactivity.

“They’re all coming from shipworm symbionts. The more we sequence, the more of this potential we find,” said Miller, who previously worked with the Philippines Mollusk Symbiont International Cooperative Biodiversity Group, which focused largely on shipworms and their bacteria, spurring his research program. “There are hundreds of these new biosynthetic gene clusters, so there’s a whole lot of potential that we’ve not yet been able to isolate. We can do some genetic engineering to turn on these genes and see if they have some kind of utility—antibiotic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory properties. We’re looking to leverage biodiversity to find new drugs, and trying to expand that research into new avenues.”

One offshoot of Miller’s original work has the potential to reduce environment waste while developing valuable compounds. Miller has found the beneficial bacteria can grow on wastepaper, eating the cellulose in paper and dissolving the waste.

“So it’s this idea of doing waste valorization or green biotechnology,” Miller said. “Maybe we can produce a valuable antibiotic, and the main feedstock going into it is paper waste or corn husks. You add some sea water to the bacteria, mix with metals and minerals it needs, then put in waste paper, and that paper will just dissolve. It’s a potential way of mitigating some cellulosic waste and turning it into something that’s value-added.”

That type of symbiosis harmonizes with Miller’s overall research program, which examines the interface of bacteria and the animal it lives in, and how chemical compounds drive that interaction.

“I have probably two main questions I like to look at,” Miller said. “What is the role of chemistry in mediating interactions between bacteria and animals? And can we harness the talents of these bacteria for drug discovery purposes. This symbiotic system is one of the potential sources.”