Discussion

Within this interdisciplinary research project studies on new secondary metabolites from marine fungi with anticancer activities are conducted by an international consortium of research institutions and industrial partners. From highly promising sources from different geographic regions fungi associated with different macroorganisms, and from a large fungal strain collection, were screened for new compounds with antitumor activities. With selected candidates genomic and genetic studies on the one hand, and fermentation approaches and production scale-up on the other hand, were applied to unravel the biosynthetic potential of the fungal strains and to optimize the production of selected antitumor-active compounds. Comprehensive studies on the activities against tumor cell lines up to the stage of in vivo proof of concept were performed.