The aim of the consortium project is the search for new pharmacologically active natural products of potentially therapeutic relevance. Based on the latest molecular pharmacological knowledge promissing targets are identified and transformed into in-vitro test systems relevant for the therapeutic areas: cardiovascular, autoimmune and neuro-degenerative diseases, diabetes, inflammation, oncology and bone metabolism. The main focus is put on signal transduction, G-protein coupled receptors, protein kinases and neurotrophins. As very promissing source fuer novel lead structures/drugs microorganisms like basidio-, asco-, deutero-, zygo- and myxomycetes, 'rare', actinomycetes and marine microorganisms are used because of their extraordinary biological variety and the very distinct structural diversity of their secondary metabolites. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: F98B1533+a / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekBundesministerium fuer Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie, Bonn (Germany)DEGerman