diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 2ae3ae947a2f82542b9a1339f8a4da1d2a31c53d..a3c5ef81cad0523a4deb1c508dbe5f1a8be3fa89 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -28,22 +28,14 @@ set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)
 set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)
 
 
-# dependency management with conan
-include(${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/conanbuildinfo.cmake)
-conan_basic_setup(KEEP_RPATHS)
+# find dependencies
+find_package(Boost)
+find_package(caosdb)
+find_package(GTest)
+
 
 # remove path-like elements from CONAN_LIBS, relevant on MacOS
-string(REGEX REPLACE ";/[^;]+" "" CONAN_LIBS "${CONAN_LIBS}")
-
-# fix grpc - remove unsecure (no-op ssl implementations)
-string(REGEX REPLACE ";grpc\\+?\\+?_unsecure" "" CONAN_LIBS_GRPC
-    "${CONAN_LIBS_GRPC}")
-string(REGEX REPLACE ";grpc\\+?\\+?_unsecure" "" CONAN_PKG_LIBS_GRPC
-    "${CONAN_PKG_LIBS_GRPC}")
-string(REGEX REPLACE ";grpc\\+?\\+?_unsecure" "" CONAN_LIBS
-    "${CONAN_LIBS}")
-string(REGEX REPLACE ";grpc\\+?\\+?_unsecure" "" CONAN_PKG_LIBS
-    "${CONAN_PKG_LIBS}")
+# string(REGEX REPLACE ";/[^;]+" "" CONAN_LIBS "${CONAN_LIBS}")
 
 #######################################################
 ### code formatting with clang-format
@@ -102,11 +94,16 @@ set(PKG_INST_DIR "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/inst")
 file(MAKE_DIRECTORY ${PKG_INST_DIR})
 
 # Options for mex compilation
-string(REGEX REPLACE ";" ";-I" _MKOCTFILE_INCLUDES "-I${CONAN_INCLUDE_DIRS};${MAOXDB_DIR}")
-string(REGEX REPLACE ";" ";-L" _MKOCTFILE_LIB_DIRS "-L${CONAN_LIB_DIRS};${_MAOX_LIB_DIR}")
-string(REGEX REPLACE ";" ";-l" _MKOCTFILE_LIBS "-lmaoxdb;${CONAN_LIBS}")
+# WIP: Remove the CONAN_INCLUDE_DIRS and CONAN_LIB_DIRS, replace with CMAKE_INCLUDE_PATH and CMAKE_LIBRARY_PATH
+message("INCLUDE_DIRS: ${CMAKE_INCLUDE_PATH}")
+message("LIB_DIRS: ${CMAKE_LIBRARY_PATH}")
+message("LIBS: ${LIBS}")
+
+string(REGEX REPLACE ";" ";-I" _MKOCTFILE_INCLUDES "-I${CMAKE_INCLUDE_PATH}")
+string(REGEX REPLACE ";" ";-L" _MKOCTFILE_LIB_DIRS "-L${CMAKE_LIBRARY_PATH};${_MAOX_LIB_DIR}")
+string(REGEX REPLACE ";" ";-l" _MKOCTFILE_LIBS "-lmaoxdb;caosdb")
 # Needs this in front: -Wl,-rpath,
-string(REGEX REPLACE ";" ",-rpath," _MKOCTFILE_RPATH "${CONAN_LIB_DIRS}")
+string(REGEX REPLACE ";" ",-rpath," _MKOCTFILE_RPATH "${CMAKE_LIBRARY_PATH}")
 set(_MKOCTFILE_OPTIONS "-Wl,-rpath,${_MKOCTFILE_RPATH}" "--mex" "-std=gnu++17"
     "-L/usr/local/lib" ${_MKOCTFILE_INCLUDES} ${_MKOCTFILE_LIB_DIRS} ${_MKOCTFILE_LIBS})
 
@@ -183,6 +180,7 @@ endif()
 
 option(TEST "Unit test with gtest" OFF)
 if(TEST)
+    find_package(GTest)
     set(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE Debug)
     # cmake tests suffers from not being able to define dependencies, see
     # https://stackoverflow.com/questions/733475, so we disable it for now.
@@ -217,7 +215,7 @@ if(TEST)
             ${OCTINCLUDEDIR}
             ${MAOXDB_DIR})
         target_link_libraries(${test_case_name} PUBLIC
-            maoxdb ${OCTLIBS} ${CONAN_LIBS_CAOSDB} ${CONAN_LIBS_GTEST} ${CONAN_LIBS_BOOST})
+            maoxdb ${OCTLIBS} caosdb::caosdb GTest::gtest ${Boost_LIBRARIES})
         target_link_directories(${test_case_name} PUBLIC ${OCTLIBDIR})
         message(STATUS "CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR: ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}")
         gtest_discover_tests(${test_case_name}