"The ocean represents a virtually untapped resource for the discovery with pharmaceutical potential"  National Research Council (USA), Understanding the Ocean's role in Human Health.

 "Drugs from the Sea" is the most familiar area of marine biotechnology.  Looking for compounds in marine organisms is a logical follow on from the hugely successful terrestrial natural products drug discovery programmes.  Drugs derived from natural products are worth some $22 billion annually (Journal of Natural Products 1997).  Of the 28 phyla of animals only two are not found in the sea.  However, it is only comparatively recently that marine species have been seriously studied as a source of new drugs.

Integrin has two main lines of research and development within its Biodiscovery Division:

Marine Natural Products:
Involved with the production of libraries of marine extracts from around the world; screening of the libraries for interesting biological activity; active compound characterisation and delivery of New Chemical Entities into the drug development pipelines of pharmaceutical companies.

For further information please telephone: +44 (0) 1631 720765

Development of enabling technologies for marine biotechnological research and natural product applications:
Primarily involved with developing new culture methods for marine invertebrate cells and for bacterial symbionts so that they can be used to accelerate the development of interesting marine products and for transgenic applications.

For further information please conact telephone:+44 (0) 1631 720765