Sarah E. O'Connor

New Capabilities

As of May 2026: Senior author of the Nature paper

For over two centuries, scientists knew cinchona bark could cure malaria but not how the trees built quinine. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology have mapped every enzymatic step, discovering a previously unknown intermediate and catalytic trick, and published the pathway in Nature on March 18, 2026.

Updated May 30