The star of the show: scientists extract anticancer steroids from starfish

A multi-institutional team of Russian scientists has extracted four novel steroids from the starfish Ceramaster patagonicus, which they have shown to have anticancer properties A collaborative team of Russian scientists from Far Eastern Federal University, G. B. Elyakov Pacific Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry and A.V. Zhirmunsky National Scientific Center for Marine Biology (all Vladivostok, Russia) has discovered four new steroid substances that possess anticancer properties. The four new compounds were extracted from the starfish Ceramaster patagonicus following a joint expedition to the Kuril Islands aboard the "Academic Oparin" research vessel. Prior to this, only one of these compounds had been...