Plants produce a vast diversity of chemicals (natural products) that have many varied biological activities and are essential to our daily lives.

Our research is unravelling the genetics and biochemistry behind the biosynthesis of many types of natural products and focusing on the development of platforms for the production of compounds of pharmaceutical and industrial importance.

Contact us

Centre for Novel Agricultural Products

cnap@york.ac.uk
+44 (0)1904 328776
Department of Biology, University of York, Wentworth Way, York YO10 5DD

Our projects

Daphniphyllum akloids

We aim to understand how Daphniphyllum macropodum makes its complex alkaloids and explore their potential for therapeutics.

Carbon-carbon bond formation

We are looking to express, engineer and apply C-C bond forming enzymes from plants to the synthesis of valuable chemical intermediates.

Co-products from rapeseed

We are using genetic technology for the development and use of valuable co-products from rapeseed.

Chemicals in catnip

We are seeking to understand exactly how a mint has evolved into catmint: how did Nepeta evolve to make this unique compound?

biosynthetic pathways

Discovering biosynthetic pathways for medicinal diterpenoids from Euphorbiaceae family. The Euphorbiaceae family of flowering plants produce a diverse range of casbene-derived diterpenoids exhibiting diverse biological activities.

Contact us

Centre for Novel Agricultural Products

cnap@york.ac.uk
+44 (0)1904 328776
Department of Biology, University of York, Wentworth Way, York YO10 5DD