title: New pharmaceuticals from marine organisms.
abstract: Definitions of 'marine biotechnology' often refer to the vast potential of the oceans to lead to new cures for human and animal disease; the exploitation of natural drugs has always been the most basic form of biotechnology. Although only initiated in the late 1970s, natural drug discovery from the world's oceans has been accelerated by the chemical uniqueness of marine organisms and by the need to develop drugs for contemporary, difficult to cure, diseases. Current research activities, while primarily within the academic laboratories, have generated convincing evidence that marine drug discovery has an exceedingly bright future.
authors.affiliation: Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla 92093-0236, USA. wfenical@ucsd.edu
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Fenical
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001688:Biological Products / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000639:trends; D015195:Drug Design; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D008386:Marine Biology; D012107:Research Design
chemical_list: D001688:Biological Products