Bahne Stechmann is a cell biologist by training and worked in academia and biotechnology. His PhD work led to the discovery of the first small molecules that show efficacy against ricin in animal experiments (Stechmann et al., Cell 2010). Bahne is the Deputy Director at EU-OPENSCREEN, a multinational research infrastructure initiative which supports collaborative projects in Chemical Biology and early Drug Discovery. He is the coordinator is the EU-funded "RAFIKI" project, which aims to strengthening capacity for drug discovery and development across sub-Saharan Africa and to build new avenues for cooperation between African and European researchers, and coordinator of the "IMPULSE" project to expand EU-OPENSCREEN as an international collaborative initiative for chemical biology and early drug discovery.