Earth Day - Name "IT" Contest -  Earth Day 2011

The Contest Winner, Susan Garges, OBRA/DMID/NIAID, provided a complete, correct answer. 

Each year “It” has been an organism, sometimes threatened or endangered, that has something to do with medicine and emphasizes the importance to NIH’s mission of protecting biodiversity.

In the first years of the contest, the mystery organisms were from far-off lands—Hoodia and Sceletium plants from the Great Karoo in southern Africa, Moringa trees from the foothills of the Himalayas in northwestern India and Gila monsters from Arizona. Last year brought the first “It” native to our own neighborhood—the pawpaw tree—and many correct answers to the contest web site.

Here were some clues about “IT” for this year’s contest, offered by "IT" itself:

I don’t come from the land at all. In fact you’ll need to use scuba gear to visit my home.

Many studies have shown that some of the most important drugs discovered in plants and other natural products are actually produced by symbiotic organisms living with the host organism (me). Sometimes my guests just don’t get the credit they deserve. So maybe to be more ecologically correct this competition should be called NIH’s “Name Them Contest.”

Rest assured that I never attack people like those poor irradiated ants portrayed in the 1954 sci-fi movie about "Them".

To tell my story a much bigger cast of characters is involved—a whole ecosystem.

When we are all working well together I can produce an array of potent anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative and analgesic compounds that may help treat a wide range of human diseases including asthma, arthritis, psoriasis, transplant rejection and poison ivy to name just a few. Maybe even cosmetic ingredients to fix your wrinkles.

When environmental conditions deteriorate and ocean temperatures rise with climate change, our numbers drop, reefs get bleached and the whole ecosystem can collapse. Unfortunately, that’s happening worldwide. Learn about things to do to help protect us.