Ancient Estrogen

Finding the mother of all hormones

Long before sharks and salmon were even a twinkle in Mother Nature’s eye, strange-looking fishes patrolled the ancient seas. They made their living in many ways, such as filtering through mud, but none bit into their food–these were the days before fish had jaws.

An antiestrogen molecule (red) sits in the binding pocket of an estrogen receptor, whose complex structure is depicted as blue curls.