Special Issue "Biomedicines from Marine Symbioses"

Guest Editor
Dr. Paul Long
Institute of Pharmaceutical Science & Department of Chemistry, King’s College London, Franklin-Wilkins Building, 150 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NH, United Kingdom
E-Mail: paul.long@kcl.ac.uk
Interests: biochemical adaptations; streptomyces genetics; natural products discovery; bioinformatics

Dear Colleagues,

Marine micro- and macro-organisms are a rich source of chemically diverse metabolites. In particular, secondary metabolites of marine invertebrates show exceptional promise as potential pharmaceuticals in diverse therapeutic areas in treating cancer, pain, inflammation and viral infections. Most marine invertebrates harbour microorganisms that include bacteria, cyanobacteria, fungi and eukaryotic algae where they reside as extra- and intra-cellular symbionts. Numerous products isolated from marine invertebrates are structurally homologous to known metabolites of strict microbial origin, suggesting that commensal microbiota contribute substantially to the biosynthesis of host metabolites and to the chemical ecology of these organisms. Advances in marine biology and molecular sciences have afforded greater access to these compounds than ever before. Herein, we invite submission of manuscripts describing natural product discovery from symbiotic or commensal associations between marine plants, invertebrates and microbial organisms. An economic and sustainable global market supply due to difficulty of synthesis is cited as the main obstacle for exploitation of these otherwise exciting marine bioactive compounds. Additionally, studies addressing issues of sustainable supply are also strongly encouraged.

Dr. Paul Long
Guest Editor

Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Marine Drugs is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs).

• marine drugs
• marine natural products
• marine symbiosis
• microbial metagenomics
• chemical ecology
• bioinformatics
• heterologous expression
• total synthesis; aquaculture