Dr Franziska Fries
About
Franziska Fries studied pharmacy at Saarland University in Saarbrücken and was licensed as a pharmacist in 2021. During her master's thesis in the Microbial Natural Products department of Prof. Dr. Rolf Müller, she worked on the establishment of zebrafish infection models as an alternative to conventional animal testing. She returned to HIPS for her doctoral studies in the same department, focusing on mode-of-action and resistance studies of novel antimicrobial compounds, and defended her thesis in March 2026.
As a postdoctoral researcher, Franziska continues her work on the biological characterizationof novel anti-infectives. She also takes on project management tasks within the departmentand supervises doctoral students.
2026
The Natural Product Corramycin Acts as a DNA Gyrase Poison and Overcomes Fluoroquinolone Resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Fries F, Herrmann J, Dal Molin M, Wormser Y, Risch T, Gao Y, Prosser G, Gubellini F, Mechaly A, Wallach J, …, Rybniker J, Petrella S (2026)
Adv. Sci.DOI: 10.1002/advs.76832
Pathogen-driven reactivation of metabolite prodrugs defines nitroxoline’s iron-deprivation antibiotic activity
Deschner F, Kinsinger T, Kiefer A, Bartel J, Voltz A, Schließmann K, Walzer N, Becker S, Kany A, Fries F, Herrmann J, Müller R (2026)
ManuscriptDOI: 10.64898/2026.06.11.731531
Genome Mining-Driven Isolation of New Gromomycins and Insights into Their Mode of Action
Bratiichuk D, Fries F, Stierhof M, Morguet L, Zapp J, Müsken M, Rebets Y, Myronovskyi M, Müller R, Herrmann J, Luzhetskyy A (2026)
ACS chemical biology 21 (3): 546-557DOI: 10.1021/acschembio.5c00821
Structure Elucidation, Biosynthesis and Biological Evaluation of Neosorangicin A, a Member of the Sorangicin Family
Fries F, Walesch S, Jansen R, Peinen K, Mehr L, Pätzold L, Karwehl S, Kany A, Garcia R, Reinecke S, …, Müller R, Herrmann J (2026)
Journal of natural productsDOI: 10.1021/acs.jnatprod.6c00056
2025
Saarvienin A - A Novel Glycopeptide with Potent Activity against Drug-resistant Bacteria
Kaur A, Guerrero-Garzón J, Rasheed S, Zehl M, Fries F, Morgenstern B, Zotchev S, Müller R (2025)
Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English)DOI: 10.1002/anie.202425588
Gromomycins: An Unprecedented Class of Triterpene Antibiotics Produced by a Novel Biosynthetic Pathway
Luzhetskyy A, Tistechok S, Bratiichuk D, Sucipto H, Gummerlich N, Stierhof M, Fries F, Müller R, Zapp J, Myronovskyi M, Gromyko O, Fedorenko V (2025)
Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English)DOI: 10.1002/anie.202422270
Uncovering the genetic basis of antiviral polyketide limocrocin biosynthesis through heterologous expression
Melnyk S, Stierhof M, Bratiichuk D, Fries F, Müller R, Rebets Y, Luzhetskyy A, Ostash B (2025)
Microb. Cell Fact. 24 (1)DOI: 10.1186/s12934-024-02621-9
2024
Cystobactamid off-target profiling reveals favorable safety, superoxide reduction, and SCARB1 inhibition in eukaryotes
Risch T, Hellwinkel B, Mostert D, Kany A, Solga D, Seedorf T, Heimann D, Hoppstädter J, Kohnhäuser D, Hilgers J, …, Herrmann J, Müller R (2024)
BookDOI: 10.1101/2024.10.10.617689
In Vivo Activity Profiling of Biosynthetic Darobactin D22 against Critical Gram-Negative Pathogens
Kany A, Fries F, Seyfert C, Porten C, Deckarm S, Chacón Ortiz M, Dubarry N, Vaddi S, Große M, Bernecker S, …, Herrmann J, Müller R (2024)
ACS Infect. Dis. 10 (12): 4337-4346DOI: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.4c00687
Point mutations in the ygiV promoter region lead to cystobactamid resistance and reduced virulence in E. coli
Müller R, Risch T, Kolling D, Mostert D, Seedorf T, Heimann D, Kohnhäuser D, Deschner F, Fries F, Solga D, …, Herrmann J, Sieber S (2024)
BookDOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3751821/v1
The Peptide Antibiotic Corramycin Adopts a β-Hairpin-like Structure and Is Inactivated by the Kinase ComG
Adam S, Fries F, Tesmar A, Rasheed S, Deckarm S, Sousa C, Reberšek R, Risch T, Mancini S, Herrmann J, …, Kalinina O, Müller R (2024)
J. Am. Chem. Soc.DOI: 10.1021/jacs.3c13208
2023
Impact of Drug Administration Routes on the In Vivo Efficacy of the Natural Product Sorangicin a Using a Staphylococcus aureus Infection Model in Zebrafish Embryos
Fries F, Kany A, Rasheed S, Hirsch A, Müller R, Herrmann J (2023)
International journal of molecular sciences 24 (16)DOI: 10.3390/ijms241612791
2021
Zebrafish: An Attractive Model to Study Staphylococcus aureus Infection and Its Use as a Drug Discovery Tool
Rasheed S, Fries F, Müller R, Herrmann J (2021)
Pharmaceuticals 14 (6)DOI: 10.3390/ph14060594