Kurzfassung

There is an increasing interest of pharmaceutical industry in the natural environment as a source for new lead compounds. This interest is based on the fact that the chemical diversity of natural bioactive compounds is much higher than that of compounds synthesized by standard combinatorial chemistry. Basically it can be stated that close to 100% of the natural secondary metabolites comprise an exploitable activity, while – in comparison – a chemically synthesized compound has a success rate...There is an increasing interest of pharmaceutical industry in the natural environment as a source for new lead compounds. This interest is based on the fact that the chemical diversity of natural bioactive compounds is much higher than that of compounds synthesized by standard combinatorial chemistry. Basically it can be stated that close to 100% of the natural secondary metabolites comprise an exploitable activity, while – in comparison – a chemically synthesized compound has a success rate of less than 5% in pre-clinical and clinical trials. The challenge which arises, if working with bioactive compounds from natural sources, is the elucidation of the target towards which a given compound acts. In addition, natural compounds display an impressively high selectivity due to evolutionary shaping (evolutionary combinatorial chemistry). Therefore, it can be expected that the discovery of novel bioactive natural products based on a success-oriented bioprospecting will significantly contribute to innovation in the field of life science. The exploitation is of major impact on the advancement of basic science and also, economically oriented, on the advancement of bio-medicine.
The main goal of this Marie Curie Research Training Network is to utilize the unique ability of aquatic invertebrates, especially sponges, corals, bryozoa and molluscs, to synthesize a large variety of bioactive compounds for medicine, plant protection and other applications. This multidisciplinary network will coordinate the bioprospecting and sustainable exploitation of natural products with potential biological and pharmacological properties from aquatic sources.
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