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Beautiful Stranger

Marine Biology and Biodiversity - Relying on Nature & Improving on Nature

As biochemists, it all started from the molecules, and we like to see them highly active and selective. Our passion for drug discovery, drug development, molecular analysis and metabolic studies guided us through a broad range of bioactive molecules such as hormones, antimicrobial peptides, immunomodulators or toxins. Optimizing an existing lead compound is a challenging issue, and we have developed original strategies to mimic what Nature has done. This has stimulated the development of unique databases and biocomputing tools, first focusing on venomous animals and their venoms, then expanding to antimicrobial peptides and now further moving towards natural substances at broad. Two decades of efforts have taught us how important and fruitful science can be when taking some distance from the daily work. Looking at things through a different angle often is the best problem solving strategy.

One way to achieve this is as simple as rewarding: observing Nature, just like naturalists have done over centuries. This can reveal original phenomena, intriguing behaviors and many incredible things that have inspired us on several occasions. The Venomics project we initiated with Dietrich Mebs and André Ménez also opened new doors and led to the creation of the Toxinomics Foundation. CONCO, the cone snail genome project is the first Venomics project. It paved the way to marine biology and scientific exploration. We are convinced that we have a lot to learn from Nature. It offers new lead compounds, and it also provides clues as to how one can improve on Nature in the frame of lead optimization programs for example. More...

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