One career path in science: successes and mistakes

Career workshop with Professor Sarah O'Connor from Department of Biological Chemistry, John Innes Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom

About Prof Sarah O'Connors research
Project Leader

Plants produce hundreds of thousands of complex metabolites called "natural products" that have many uses. Anti-cancer agents such as vinblastine and taxol, the analgesic morphine, and the anti-malarials artemisinin and quinine are each natural products that are produced by a plant. Despite the importance of these compounds, it is unclear how many of these complicated molecules are made by the plant.

Our group elucidates and engineers the metabolic pathways that construct these compounds from simple building blocks. An understanding of these pathways allows us to harness the wealth of compounds and biocatalysts that plants have provided. Moreover, we can also begin to speculate how and why plants evolved to produce some of these molecules.  

We take a multi-disciplinary approach to answering research questions, using plant molecular biology, enzymology and chemical strategies in our group.