The Division of Pharmacognosy is dedicated to pharmaceutical research focusing on natural products from all kingdoms of nature (e.g., plants, microbes, fungi, lichens). Our primary tasks include discovering, isolating, and characterizing new biologically active compounds to better understand their molecular mechanisms and interactions within complex cellular systems.
Our goals include identifying novel drug leads and targets, improving the quality of herbal medicinal products, and sustainably producing natural compounds through biotechnological approaches.
Embracing Curiosity: As part of the NaturTalente program 2026, Christine Coffey was among the invited talents. During five visits to partner companies, the students had the opportunity to take a look behind the scenes at major industry leaders.
Congratulations on the outstanding completion of Martina Redl’s PhD titled “Identifying and dissecting health-promoting natural products for healthy aging in Caenorhabditis elegans” as part of the Schwabe Phyto Innovation Challenge. Martina, you truly are our C. elegans queen! 👑
Department Meeting
05.03.2026 - 25.06.2026
Since summer 2025, websites across the university have been going online with a new, mobile-optimised design. We went live today! Older entries can be found in the Phaidra archive (accessible within the univie network).
As part of the Pharmacy Ball on January 17, the four best scientific works from 2025 of early career pharmacognosists were awarded. We congratulate the recipient of the Schwabe Austria Phyto Research Prize at the University of Vienna, Mag. pharm. Elisabeta Ros, on her outstanding master’s thesis entitled „Investigation and Isolation of Alternaria alternata Mycotoxins“ supervised by A. Wasilewicz and J.M. Rollinger.
On September 25th ot 26th, a group of PhaNuSpo students travelled to Frankenfels for a PhD retreat. Out of 34 posters, Katharina Riffelsberger from the Dirsch group and Johannes Gafriller from the Rollinger group were two of the top five. Congratulations!
