Book Review Cite This: J. Nat. Prod. 2017, 80, 2861-2861
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Review of Marine Biomedicine. From Beach to Bedside Marine Biomedicine. From Beach to Bedside. Edited by Bill J. Baker (University of South Florida). CRC Press, Boca Raton. 2016. xviii + 594 pp. $139.95. 18 × 25 cm. ISBN 978-1-46658212-5.
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his book is a most welcome treatise on the various aspects of discovering and developing medicines from marine organisms. It evokes memories of the series of books published by Paul Scheuer that provided timely and detailed reviews of the progress of research on various aspects of marine natural products. However, this book focuses exclusively on marine biomedicines: the challenges, the tools and technology, and approaches that have succeeded and some that failed. The book is divided into four parts. The first deals with the biotechnology that now guides and streamlines search efforts, e.g., metagenomics, metabolomics, biosynthesis, and dereplication. The second and most extensive part looks at lead discovery, with chapters on natural product compound and extract libraries, microbial libraries, and screening strategies and target identification, followed by chapters on efforts to discover antiinfective and antiparasitic agents, central nervous system modulators, and cancer chemopreventive agents, culminating with chapters on marine organisms from unique econiches and medicinal chemistry and lead optimization. The third part is perhaps the most impactful section of the book, focusing on the challenges of clinical trials with marine-derived compounds, two success stories (conopeptides and eribulin mesylate), and some efforts that were not as successful, but all these chapters are very illuminating of the challenges in this field. Finally, the fourth part is a brief chapter on the prospects for the future of marine biodiscovery. This is a well-written and -edited book, with excellent figures and overall production values. It is a must-read for anyone in or contemplating entry into the field of marine natural products. There is also insight and value here for drug discovery and medicinal chemistry groups in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. This reviewer highly recommends this book to readers of this journal and hopes that the editor and publisher will contemplate and plan an update on this theme in 5−10 years. Hopefully, we will see that dramatic changes and advances will have occurred by then.
John H. Cardellina, II
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ReevesGroup Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Notes
The author declares no competing financial interest.
Published: October 11, 2017 © 2017 American Chemical Society and American Society of Pharmacognosy
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jnatprod.7b00822 J. Nat. Prod. 2017, 80, 2861−2861
