Fármacos de origen marino Authors Fernando de la Calle Abstract The first living organisms appeared in the sea more than 3,500 million years ago and evolutionary development has equipped many marine organisms with the appropriate mechanisms to survive, developing exquisitely complex biological and chemical mechanisms for defence, attack, signalization and other still unknown purposes. These biological capabilities are clearly revealed by their ability to biosynthesize and release potent chemical weapons that are active per se. Such novel chemical structures often result in new modes of action and open up the potential of new ways to treat cancer and other diseases. The current scientific, academic and biotech-pharmaceutical industries have recognized this opportunity and thousands of bioactive compounds are being discovered and some of them are being testing in clinical trials, mainly in oncology. The classical view of marine biotechnology has been radically changed with the advent of molecular tools. Now, the concept of biological diversity is based on an enormous universe of DNA sequences, where the majority of the life forms cannot be cultivated in the laboratory. It opens up the possibility of analyzing all this genomic content as potential genes able to produce innovative pharmaceutical compounds and enzymes. Downloads Text complet (Català) Published 2009-02-18 Issue 58, 2007 : Les biotecnologies / Pere Puigdomènech i Francesc Gòdia, editors Section Les aplicacions: salut, alimentació, indústria i medi ambient License The intellectual property of the articles belongs to the respective authors. At the time of submitting the articles to Treballs de la Societat Catalana de Biologia, authors accept the following terms: — Authors assign to the SCB (a subsidiary of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans) the rights of reproduction, public communication (including communication through social networks) and distribution of the articles submitted for publication to Treballs de la Societat Catalana de Biologia, in any form and medium, including digital platforms. The Publications Committee reserves the right to accept or refuse submitted articles and the right to make any editorial changes it deems appropriate. If the suggested changes are accepted by authors, they should re-submit the article with such changes. — Authors answer to the SCB for the authorship and originality of submitted articles. In other words, authors assure that submitted articles do not contain fragments of works by other authors or fragments of their own previously published works; that the content of articles is original, and that the copyright of third parties is not infringed upon. Authors accept this responsibility and undertake to hold harmless the SCB for any loss or damage resulting from non-compliance with this obligation. Furthermore, they should include a statement in articles submitted to the journal regarding their responsibility for the content of the articles. — Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for the reproduction of all graphic material included in articles, and they should moreover ensure that images, videos, etc., have been created with the consent of the individuals appearing in them, and that material belonging to third parties is clearly identified and acknowledged as such within the text. Likewise, authors should provide the respective consents and authorisations to the SCB when submitting articles. — The SCB is exempt from any liability arising from the possible infringement of intellectual property rights by authors. In all cases, it undertakes to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies, if necessary. — Unless otherwise stated in the text or in the graphic material, the contents published in the journal are subject to an Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivs 3.0 Spain (by-nc-nd) license from Creative Commons, the full text of which may be consulted at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/deed.en. Therefore, the general public is authorised to reproduce, distribute and communicate articles as long as their authorship and publishing entity are acknowledged, and no commercial use is made of them nor derivative work produced from them. — The journal is not responsible for the ideas and opinions expressed by the authors of published articles.
