Especially these days antibiotic research has become a general significance since in the industrial nations of Europe bacterial infectious diseases are increasing.

As Indonesia is one of the most species-rich countries in the world, this biodiversity should also be reflected by the microbial species diversity. Therefore, especially Indonesian soils are a source for unknown actinobacterial strains, which may produce novel antimicrobial compounds.

The aim of this study is to isolate new antimicrobial active substances from unknown actinomycetes and to investigate them regarding to their medical potential.

The isolation and identification of unknown actinomycetes as well as the primary screening for antimicrobial substances will be performed by two Indonesian partners, Dr. Wien Kusharyoto and Dr. Puspita Lisdyanti from the Research Center for Biotechnology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Bogor, Indonesia. Dr. Puspita Lisdyanti is specialized in the identification and isolation of unknown actinomycetes. Dr. Wien Kusharyoto currently develops a new screening system for the identification of anti-infective substances, especially for anti-mycobacterial and anti-viral agents. Bioinformatical screenings for antibiotic biosynthesis gene cluster and their heterologous expression in appropriate host strains as well as a subsequent production optimization of lead substances will be done by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wohlleben / Dr. Yvonne Mast at the IMIT of the University Tübingen. A detailed antimicrobial screening as well as structure elucidations of interesting compounds chemical will be realized by Prof. Dr. Harald Groß, University Tübingen.