Franziska Guenther

Franziska is Team Leader of the Assay Development and Screening team at the Oxford Drug Discovery Institute (ODDI), focusing on biochemical and biophysical high-throughput screening assays. Her team focuses on the development of biochemical and biophysical assays for early-stage drug discovery, supporting the identification and validation of novel therapeutic targets for neurodegenerative diseases.

She obtained her PhD in Neurophysiology from Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg in collaboration with King's College London, building on academic training in Molecular Medicine and Cell & Molecular Biology. She subsequently spent five years as a postdoctoral scientist at the ODDI, where she developed and applied assays to advance drug discovery programmes in dementia research.

Before returning to academia in 2025, Franziska worked in global innovation consulting, supporting universities, governments, research organisations and industry partners in areas including research commercialisation, technology transfer, intellectual property strategy, innovation policy, and international research and innovation programmes.

Alongside her scientific leadership, Franziska is co-leading public and patient involvement and engagement (PPIE) activities at the ODDI, is actively engaged in interdisciplinary collaborations and initiatives that strengthen connections between research, society and policy. Her broader interests are at the intersection of drug discovery, innovation, intellectual property, access to medicines, and research-to-policy impact in global health.

Selected policy and innovation outputs:

Strengthening Research Commercialisation Skills in South Africa: Guidelines for Universities and Technology Transfer Offices (co-developed with Oxentia and the British Council South Africa)

Analysis to Co-design a Research and Innovation Programme (co-developed with Oxentia, Oxford Policy Management, and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO))