Drug Discovery from Marine Microbes

Symbiotic Microbes from Marine Invertebrates: Driving a New Era of Natural Product Drug Discovery

Invertebrates account for more than 89% of all extant organisms in the marine environment, represented by over 174,600 species (recorded to date). Such diversity is mirrored in (or more likely increased by) the microbial symbionts associated with this group and in the marine natural products (or MNPs) that they produce. Since the early 1950s over 20,000 MNPs have been discovered, including comp...

Recent Advances in Drug Discovery from South African Marine Invertebrates

Recent developments in marine drug discovery from three South African marine invertebrates, the tube worm Cephalodiscus gilchristi, the ascidian Lissoclinum sp. and the sponge Topsentia pachastrelloides, are presented. Recent reports of the bioactivity and synthesis of the anti-cancer secondary metabolites cephalostatin and mandelalides (from C. gilchristi and Lissoclinum sp., respectively) and...

Exploring novel bioactive compounds from marine microbes.

The historical paradigm of the deep ocean as a biological 'desert' has shifted to one of a 'rainforest' owing to the isolation of many novel microbes and their associated bioactive compounds. Recently, there has been an explosion of information about novel bioactive compounds that have been isolated from marine microbes in an effort to further explore the relatively untapped marine microbes and...

Screening of Bioactive peptides from marine microbes

Marine natural products in drug discovery

Marine organisms comprise approximately a half of the total biodiversity, thus offering a vast source to discover useful therapeutics. In recent years, a significant number of novel metabolites with potent pharmacological properties have been discovered from the marine organisms. Although, there are only few marine derived products currently in the market, several marine natural products are no...