A tiny worm that has been around since the Earth cooled and was the only survivor of the Challenger space shuttle disaster is the research focus of a Utah oncologist selected this year for a $500,000, no-strings-attached fellowship by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The capacity to survive is remarkable, but the ubiquitous roundworm's innards — the digestive tract in particular — are what cellular biologist Susan E. Mango is looking for. Actually, it's their reliability as a specimen in labs everywhere that is helping her find what she's ultimately looking for.

"The Caenorhabditis elegans is a powerful tool in research that allows us to apply one of the biggest discoveries over the past 30 years of how organisms develop," said Mango, 46, a professor of oncological sciences at the University of Utah's School of Medicine and Huntsman Cancer Institute.

"The C-elegans is a foot in the door to studying what's going on genetically and cellular development and mutations linked with cancers and birth defects in ways you could never do in humans.

"They just allow us to observe common developmental processes that can be observed under way," she said. They are easy to handle, they make experiments easy to set up, "and are far less difficult than a mouse," she said.

And through her research, she has provided biologists everywhere with one of their most robust models of organ development, the MacCarthur Foundation's award announcement noted.

"Her work is leading to a better understanding of these developmental processes (and) could lead to new treatments to silence malfunctioning genes that can lead to cancer."

Her work is also taking her further down the path of a life she imagined in high school.

"I liked science, but I really liked puzzles," Mango said. "I liked having the picture in mind and how each piece figured into the overall result."

Scientific researchers like getting a close look at the reality or pieces behind what is observed, she said. "We get a picture of the way something works, but then something about the picture doesn't fit; A doesn't go with B, and those are the areas we end up pursuing."

Mango used the same process personally, re-evaluating what she thought she knew about science after an internship with the American Cancer Society in high school.

"It wasn't anything like the white-coated, very serious environment I thought it would be," she said. "I found out it was much more a team effort, could be very interactive with other researchers, and it was fun."

Mango said she isn't exactly sure how she will use the $500,000 award.

"Right now, I'm just so happy that the honor has come to Utah," she said. "The research efforts conducted here are what brought me here in the first place, and I'm just glad I could be part of some wider recognition of that."

Mango will come full circle in her career starting July 1, when she returns to Harvard University, where she received her bachelor's degree in 1983, as a professor of molecular and cellular biology.

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E-mail: jthalman@desnews.com