Thomas Efferth is chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, Institute of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany. He is biologist by training (Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany). His doctoral thesis was completed at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany (1990). Dr. Efferth was awarded the Ludolf-Krehl-Prize of the Southwest German Association for Medicine (1991), the Willmar-Schwabe-Award of the German Society for Medicinal Plant Research (2006), the citizen medal of the City of Heidelberg, Germany (2008), the CESAR Award for Translational Oncology (2011), and the SCENTEDdrop Award on medicinal and flagrant herbs (2015). He headed a research group for Pharmaceutical Biology at DKFZ (2005-2009) and was associate professor (apl) at the University of Heidelberg (2007-2009). In 2009, he took over the Chair of Pharmaceutical Biology (full professorship) at the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz. Furthermore, he is honorary professor at the Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, and at the Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China.

Moreover, he is visiting professor at the Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, Hangzhou, China. He is editor-in-chief, co-editor, associate editor and editorial board member of 30 scientific journals and scientific advisory board member of the German Pharmaceutical Society and several other institutions. Seven of his former lab members promoted to associate or assistant professors. The focus of Dr. Efferth's research is on tumor pharmacology, pharmacogenomics, and the development of novel options for treatment and diagnosis of cancer. A major topic is research on chemical entities from natural sources.