New research into primitive protective proteins from the immune systems of sharks could lead to more versatile drugs to battle diseases such as cancer and dangerous bacterial infections and to robust diagnostic kits that could easily leave the lab, an area of intense research following the anthrax attacks of 2001. In a study published Thursday online by the journal Science, researchers at The Scripps Institute in La Jolla, CA, and the University of Maryland at Baltimore determined that the structure of the primitive antibody that marks a difference between the immune systems of sharks and mammals is unusually simple. Ian...