Martin Klapper

Martin Klapper is a researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (HKI) in Jena, Germany, where he is affiliated with the Junior Research Group Chemistry of Microbial Communication.

His research focuses on Microbial Communication and Natural Product Chemistry, specifically investigating how bacteria produce chemical compounds to defend against predators like amoebae. His work in Chemical Ecology examines bacterial defense mechanisms through the discovery of novel bacterial alkaloids (pyreudiones A–D) that protect Pseudomonas fluorescens HKI0770 against amoebal predation. This research combines microbiology, organic chemistry, and ecological studies to understand microbial survival strategies in natural environments.

His publication record demonstrates expertise in identifying and characterizing bioactive natural products with ecological functions, particularly in soil-dwelling bacterial communities. Through isolation, structure elucidation, and gene-deletion experiments, his work reveals how specific chemical compounds serve as defensive weapons in microbial warfare.

Klapper collaborates with researchers across multiple disciplines including organic synthesis, microbiology, and chemical ecology, working within Germany's prominent natural product research infrastructure at the HKI.