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.

21.07.2025
 

On 21 July 2025, part of the Molecular Target Group visits the Spittelau waste incineration plant (Wien Energie) to explore the fascinating process of turning waste into heat. www.wienenergie.at/privat/erleben/standorte/muellverwertungs-anlage-spittelau/

17.07.2025
 

On July 17th 2025, Sigrid Adelsberger successfully defended her PhD thesis "Biochemometrics and biopharmaceutical profiling in drug discovery from natural sources". Well done and congratulations Sigrid!

 

09.07.2025
 

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 (Medizin aus der Natur: Kann uns die Natur helfen, neue Medikamente zu finden?).

08.07.2025
 

On July 8th 2025, Patrik Schwarz successfully defended his PhD thesis "Natural product and natural product-inspired inhibitors of RAR-related orphan receptor gamma (ROR γ)". Well done and congratulations Patrik!

03.07.2025
 

Next Generation in Pharmacognosy (July 3/4 2025 – venue: University of Vienna, Division of Pharmacognosy, Josef-Holaubek-Platz 2, UZA2). Great opportunity for networking, presentations, and discussions of PhDs, postdocs, and professors at Austrian Universities with an adjoined social evening at Heuriger Kierlinger. View website: www.hmppa.at

26.06.2025
 

Prague, Czech Republic: Corinna Brungs has been awarded the Early-Career Travel Award and the Early Career Prize by the Metabolomics Society at the Metabolomics 2025 conference. The prize recognizes her contributions to the field, highlighted by her work on MSnLib, a comprehensive open mass spectral library, encompassing ~50,000 compounds.