Alaskan Sunflower Sea Stars

Photo Credit: Census of Marine Life

Australian marine scientists have joined up with an Austrian drug company to develop cancer-fighting medicines from chemicals found in other marine life -- sea sponges and ocean algae.

Researchers with the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) said Wednesday they have found properties in sea sponges and some algae that attack one or two types of cancer cells while leaving healthy cells intact.

"We have discovered organisms which have been identified as having potent activity against things like breast cancer and leukaemia," said AIMS marine pharmacologist Lyndon Llewellyn.

"There are chemicals in those organisms which are killing the cells and there are a number that have already been identified and which are at the pre-clinical stage," he said.

Under Wednesday's agreement, AIMS teamed up with the Austrian firm Faustus to turn its research discoveried into medicines.

AIMS' Chris Battershill said similar research was underway in Spain and the United States but the Australian project is in the lead.

"The evidence is there that we're getting very close," he said on ABC radio.

"We're able to move very quickly because we're already know of a number of candidates in Queensland (state) waters in particular that have the type of activity that we're interested in," he said.

"We'll be fast-tracking those."

AIMS has been combing the ocean for potential cancer treatments since the mid-1980s, and has developed one of the world's largest publicly-owned collections of biotic extracts from more than 20,000 Australian marine organisms.

Llewellyn said AIMS researchers looked for biological clues that an organism "might have something nasty in it that could be helpful."

"The compounds are then screened against cell lines from every cancer known to mankind and through that they might find that a particular extract may be very effective against cells that have come from breast cancers so you focus on breast cancer activity," he said.

To learn more about efforts underway in Australia, go to: AIMS.gov.au