South Dakota State University researchers studying the cancer preventing effects of sarcodiol received a National Institutes of Health grant of nearly $217,000 this past spring.

Sarcodiol is a part natural, part manufactured product from Red Sea coral.

The grant will allow the team to advance its research on non-melanoma skin cancer into 2012.

Leading the team is Hesham Fahmy, an associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences, and Chandradhar Dwivedi, head of the
pharmaceutical sciences department.

In an earlier study, the researchers found treatments reduced the ability of cancer cells to live and spread, and caused programmed cell death in some cases.

Dwivedi said if the treatments work, researchers could move on to human trial.

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