Alexander Major studied chemistry at the University of Freiburg and wrote his bachelor's thesis in Henning Jessen's group, focusing on the compartmentalisation of polyphosphate kinases. Then he started at the University of Zurich, where he obtained his master's degree in chemistry and biochemistry. There, he worked in Karl Gademann's group, specialising in medicinal chemistry and the semisynthesis of antibiotics. In 2024, he started his PhD in Dr. Florian Hubrich's group at HIPS. Here, he is engaged in synthetic biology and researches the biosynthesis of biocatalysts for the prenylation of natural products, particularly ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RIPPs).