Scientists have discovered a potential cure for the killer hospital bug MRSA.

Microbiologists from Newcastle University have been probing sediments from beneath the ocean floor for new bacteria for the last two years.

They have found one bacterium that kills the MRSA bug - even the strains which are immune to current antibiotics.

So confident is the team that they are looking to form a company to investigate the development and commercialisation of a new antibiotic from it.

It was found in a sample from the Sea of Japan, and is called actinomycete.

It produces its own antibiotic compound and tests show that the antibiotic, called abyssomicin C, kills MRSA.

Newcastle microbiologist Dr Jem Stach believes the breakthrough is especially important because of the way MRSA is advancing.

Strains of MRSA are proving to be immune to the only effective antibiotic used to fight the bug, called Vancomycin.

But the sea bacteria can also control these.

"The antibiotic is effective. It kills MRSA," said Dr Stach, from the university's Institute for research on Environment and Sustainability.