Traditional herbal remedies have survived from generation to generation through centuries. However today, many of the populations of medicinal plants are under threat of extinction due to environmental pressure and degradation.
Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Hildebert Wagner passed away on November 5th, 2021 at the age of 92 in Breitbrunn (Upper Bavaria, Germany).
With him, we are losing not only an excellent scientist who left an immense mark on the field of medicinal plant and natural product research, but also a true bridge builder between pharmacy and medicine, a personality who cultivated a curious and visionary view of the world to the very end. Last but not least, we mourn the loss of a pioneering teacher and a valuable academic friend.
Planta Medica – GA’s official journal – has honored the outstanding scientific achievements of Professor Otto Sticher, our former GA President, by publishing a special issue on the occasion of his 85th birthday. On November 12th, 2021, the final version of the special issue was presented to the honoree in a virtual meeting.
The 69th GA congress was a great success, being the first online congress in the history of GA, and likewise the GA members meeting, with the election of the new board of directors. Thanks to the online voting platform used, the results of the election were available for the attendants in record time.
The InnCoCells project aims to revolutionize the way cosmetic ingredients are sourced, produced and tested by developing sustainable production processes based on plant cell and tissue cultures, aeroponics, greenhouse/field-grown plants and agricultural waste streams. These will be used for the extraction of valuable cosmetic ingredients for testing in a range of cell and tissue assays. The most promising ingredients will be tested on human volunteers before commercial exploitation. The project is guided by Stakeholder Group that includes the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research.
Support needed for Best Practice Guidelines for the Characterisation of Extracts used in Pharmacological, Clinical and Toxicological Research
A new project on marine natural products has just started under Horizon 2020. SECRETed is aspiring to fully exploit the Systems and Synthetic Biology toolboxes to unlock the potential of marine and extremophilic bacteria for the development of biosurfactants and siderophores. New strains will be designed, built and tested for the production of industrial driven (agrochemical, cosmetic, nutrition and health) tailor made natural compounds.
The first virtual GA-congress took place in September 2021 and was very successful.
The Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology and Phytochemistry at University of Münster (Germany) hosted the annual meeting of an African-German Research Network Infectiology.
The GA Young Researchers’ Workshop (YRW) 2021 was held on September 5th as a pre-symposium of the GA 2021 Conference
