Mission Statement

The Division of Pharmacognosy carries out research in pharmaceutical sciences focused on natural products from medicinal plants and microorganisms. Major tasks are the discovery of new biologically active compounds from natural sources and the characterization of their molecular mode of action contributing to a better understanding of the interaction of natural products and complex cellular systems. Our aim is pharmaceutical lead and target identification, the quality improvement of herbal medicinal products as well as the sustainable production of natural products by biotechnological approaches.

10.10.2024
 

Department Meeting

10.10.2024 - 30.01.2025

13.07.2024
 

With 13 delegates from our Division, we were well represented at the International Conference of Natural Product Research (ICNPR 2024; July 13-17, 2024) in Krakow, Poland. It was amazing to meet with >1100 natural product researchers from 68 countries. Read more about the impressions from our PhD students: Christine Coffey, Martina Redl, Sigrid Adelsberger and Elisabeth Eichenauer.

09.07.2024
 

On July 09th, Verena Dirsch gave a lecture for children between seven and twelve years old. Exciting questions about how nature can help us to find new drugs have been discussed (Kann uns die Natur helfen, neue Medikamente zu finden?).

04.07.2024
 

HMPPA (www.hmppa.at): Next generation in Pharmacognosy (hosted by the University of Graz, July 4/5 2024): Great opportunity for talks, networking, and discussions of PhDs, postdocs, and professors at Austrian Universities. Participants from the Division of Pharmacognosy: Martina Redl, Christine Coffey, Ulrike Grienke, Sigrid Adelsberger, Lorenza Bertaina.

13.06.2024
 

The "NaturTalente" programme (www.uniport.at/naturtalente) has been connecting students from the life science sector with companies for nine years. Three PhD students from the Pharmacognosy Division took part in the closing event on June 13th: Sigrid Adelsberger, Elisabeth Eichenauer, Martina Redl, (left: Ulrike Grienke).

10.06.2024
 

On June 10th, Anna Vignolle successfully defended her PhD thesis "Thesis title: Genome mining of Streptomyces spp. isolated from the rhizosphere of Leontopodium nivale subsp. alpinum." Well done and congratulations Anna! We wish you all the best for your future career!