bloodless worm, University of Maryland researchers have discovered an important clue to how iron carried in human blood is absorbed and transported into the body. The finding could lead to developing new ways to reduce iron deficiency, the world's number one nutritional disorder. With C. elegans , a common microscopic worm that lives in dirt, professor Iqbal Hamza, identified previously unknown proteins that are key to transporting heme, the the molecule that creates hemoglobin in blood.