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Jakob Franke is an Associate Professor of Biochemistry of Plant Specialised Metabolites at Leibniz University Hannover, Germany. He originally studied Biochemistry and Chemistry in his hometown Munich. In 2011, he moved to Jena to conduct his doctoral research in the group of Prof. Dr. Christian Hertweck at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology, Hans Kn枚ll Institute, focusing on biosynthetic pathways from human pathogenic bacteria. After completing his PhD in 2015, he transitioned from bacteria to plants by joining the group of Prof. Dr. Sarah O鈥機onnor at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK for his postdoctoral research. In 2017, he returned to Germany to start his independent career at Leibniz University Hannover, where he received tenure in 2024.

Jakob鈥檚 research is focused on elucidating biosynthetic pathways in plants and applying this biochemical knowledge for metabolic engineering. A primary focus of his group is on triterpenoids and steroids with unusual structural features. He is also particularly interested in leveraging large-scale sequence data for discovering hidden biochemical novelty.

to find out more about Jakob and the work his lab is doing.

I am deeply honoured to receive the 2026 Natural Product Reports Emerging Investigator Lectureship. I am very grateful to my academic teachers and mentors (Peter Spiteller, Dirk Trauner, Christian Hertweck and Sarah O鈥機onnor) who have supported me throughout my career and have sparked my love for natural products. I am also extremely grateful to my fantastic group who made our contributions possible; seeing everyone鈥檚 dedication and team spirit makes me very proud. The biggest joy of being a scientist is seeing your own students grow and become successful researchers and experts themselves.