Drugs from the sea: New discoveries in marine biomedicine
Friday, May 13, 2011 - 19:30
in Biology & Nature
Substances produced by living organisms found in nature—so-called "natural products"—have played a critical role in the development of drugs for life-threatening conditions. The anticancer agent Taxol was sourced from a plant, penicillin from a fungus, and a number of recent breakthroughs have resulted in the development and approval of anticancer drugs derived from marine sources such as coral and sponges.