You are here: home » Oceans and Human Health » Marine Natural Products
Marine Natural Products at Hollings Marine Laboratory
Overview
Coastal areas are the most developed areas in the nation, with more than half of the U.S. population living in less than one-fifth of the total area of the 48 states. As societal pressures involving our oceans and coasts mount, understanding chemical/biochemical interactions, involving both natural and naturally modified synthetic compounds, with the environment is becoming critical. Marine mammal die-off events, massive fish kills and coral bleaching are all symptoms of environmental stress. In many of these cases various naturally occurring chemicals are implicated. Marine derived toxins, active at very low concentrations, are well known in their involvement of massive fish kills and marine mammal events, as well as involvement in serious human health related issues. Many of these bioactive compounds are completely uncharacterized. Current research at HML is looking into the implications of these, often novel, toxins being associated with coral death and other marine ecosystem degradative processes. Isolation, identification and characterization of these chemicals has often been hindered due to the lack of sensitivity of molecular structural determination methods available. With the advent of ultra-high field NMR as well as highly sensitive MS methodology, we can now investigate these toxic substance in natural abundance. We are working to complete structural characterization of several novel marine toxins associated with environmental and human health issues.