This course enables the student to understand the importance of marines life and marines natural products, describe and deal with: the composition and bioactivity of sea water, the marine ecosystem and classification of major phyla of marine organisms; the importance of marine drugs as leads for novel pharmaceuticals; the chemistry, bioactivity and/ or toxicity of metabolites derived from marine organisms (specially algae, invertebrates and microorganisms); as well as, the techniques adopted for drug-development from marine resources.