Esther Guzmán

The oceans are a rich source of bioactive natural products. Natural products, or secondary metabolites, are small molecules made by organisms that are not essential to sustain life, but presumably confer an evolutionary advantage to the organism that makes it. Over 62% of drugs can be traced back to natural products. This lecture will focus on the biology side of Harbor Branch’s drug discovery program. The Cell Biology Group focuses on finding compounds with utility against cancer, the 2nd leading cause of death in the United States. Marine natural products represent a wealth of potential treatments against cancer, and this talk will highlight discovery efforts done recently to identify potential novel treatments for different types of cancer including lung, pancreatic, and triple negative breast cancer.

Natural products, or secondary metabolites, are small molecules made by organisms which are not essential to sustain life, but presumably confer an evolutionary advantage to the organism that makes it. Over 62% of drugs can be traced back to natural products. The Marine Biomedical and Biotechnology Research Program at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at FAU conducts drug discovery research of novel marine natural products that can be used against dreaded diseases. Within the MBBR, the Cell Biology Group focuses on finding compounds with utility against cancer, the 2nd leading cause of death in the United States. Marine natural products represent a wealth of potential treatments against cancer, and this talk will highlight discovery efforts done recently to identify potential novel treatments for cancer. EDITED--PRESENTATION ONLY NO Q&A

The Marine Biomedical and Biotechnology Research Program (MBBR) at Harbor Branch conducts drug discovery research of novel marine natural products that can be used against dreaded diseases. Within the MBBR, the Cell Biology Group focuses on finding compounds with utility against pancreatic cancer, the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States. This talk highlights marine natural products identified through this research that have the potential to prevent or treat this disease.

The oceans are part of America’s newest medical frontier. In Florida, scientists are studying a variety of marine invertebrates which may hold the key to unlocking the secrets of our own biology.