Prof. Anne Osbourn
Professor and Group Leader
Anne’s research focuses on plant natural products – biosynthesis, function, and mechanisms of metabolic diversification. Her discovery that the genes for many of these pathways are organize din plant genomes like ‘beads on a string’ has greatly accelerated the ability to find new pathways and chemistries of potential importance for the development of drugs (including anti-cancer agents) and other useful compounds. She has also developed a synthetic biology platform for rapid gram-scale production, using triterpenes as an exemplar.
Current research priorities are:
- Triterpene biosynthesis, enzyme and pathway discovery
- Genome mining for natural product pathways
- Production of natural products, analogs and new-to-nature molecules for drug and chemical discovery programmes
Funders: BBSRC, EPSRC, NIH, industry