Anke Wilhelm studied chemistry at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein and received her PhD in 2013 under the guidance of the late Prof Jan van der Westhuizen. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 2023. Her research includes natural product chemistry, isolation of bioactive natural products, and zebrafish research. She established and currently leads the zebrafish larval locomotive bioassay platform at the University of the Free State, where it serves as a multidisciplinary research facility for screening of natural and synthetic compounds for neuroactive and pharmacological properties. Current projects in her research group cover a broad spectrum of organic chemistry, which includes multistep synthesis of natural products and analogues, pharmaceutical chemistry and computer-aided drug discovery.