Metabolomics approaches for systems biology

Understanding the workings of biological systems requires more than an analysis of the proteins present. Valuable insights can also be gained from a metabolomic or lipidomic study. New advances across the analytical range from chromatography, mass spectrometry to intelligent software systems are changing the way analyses are being performed and allowing for continuing progress.

Presentations:

Analytical development in the field of metabolomics and lipidomics

• Univ. Prof. Dr. Gunda Koellensperger, Head of Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Vienna

Benchmarking non-targeted metabolomics and lipidomics using yeast derived libraries

• Evelyn Rampler, Group leader Rampler lab, University of Vienna

Multiomics reveals altered lipid metabolism and signaling upon environmental enrichment in synaptic junctions

• Cristina Coman, Postdoctoral researcher, University of Vienna

An untargeted metabolomics approach reveal transporter protein substrates

• Marina Muelas, Research Associate at the Centre for Metabolomics Research, University of Liverpool

Novel analytical and computational metabolomics approaches applied to plant natural products discovery

• Tito Damiani, Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences

Learning points:

• Latest advances in targeted metabolomics and lipidomics
• Latest advances in systems biology
• Optimising strategies to maximise research performance with confidence

Who should attend:

• Researchers in metabolomics labs
• Researchers in lipidomics labs
• Laboratory directors, managers and technicians interested in state-of-the-art metabolome analysis

Presenter: Gunda Koellensperger (Head of Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Vienna)

Univ. Prof. Dr. Gunda Koellensperger holds the chair for Analytical Chemistry at the University Vienna. Currently she is head of the Institute of Analytical Chemistry, deputy head of the Center for Mass Spectrometry, vice chair of the Vienna metabolomics platform, and vice dean of the Faculty of Chemistry. G. Koellensperger chairs/chaired several symposia (e.g. the 6th international symposium on Metallomics, 2017; Feigl Symposium, 2016; Forum on Mass Spectrometry, annual event). She is an expert in methods based on mass spectrometry with more than 170 publications. Her research envisages the development of innovative analytical procedures with emphasis on accurate quantification in omics-type of analysis and cutting-edge elemental mass spectrometry addressing single cell analysis.

Presenter: Evelyn Rampler (Group leader Rampler lab, University of Vienna)

Evelyn Rampler is a senior scientist and group leader at the department of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Vienna. She studied biotechnology and specialized in analytical chemistry during her PhD at the University of Natural Resource and Life Sciences Vienna. During two independent post-doc phases at the Institute of Molecular Pathology and the University of Vienna as well as several research stays abroad (US, Germany, Australia), she gained expertise in LC-MS based proteomics, glycomics and lipidomics. Currently, she leads projects on the development of novel LC-MS based metabolomics, (glyco)lipidomics and multi-omics workflows for the application in different sample matrices (human plasma, plants, stem and tumor cells) and is vice president of the Austrian Proteomics & Metabolomics Association.

Presenter: Cristina Coman (Postdoctoral researcher, University of Vienna)

Dr Coman received her BSc and MSc in Chemistry from the Babes-Bolyai University, in Romania. She finished her PhD in 2019 at the Leibniz-Institut für Analytische Wissenschaften – ISAS – e.V., in Germany and is currently a postdoc at the Institute of Analytical Chemistry, University of Vienna. Her interests focus on developing and implementing lipid-centered multiomics strategies to increase the understanding of cardiac related metabolism and processes.

Presenter: Marina Muelas (Research Associate at the Centre for Metabolomics Research, University of Liverpool)

Dr. Wright Muelas obtained her first degree in Physiological Sciences BSc (Hons) from Newcastle University, and continued higher education to obtain a PhD in systems biology from University of Manchester. After a brief exposure working as a research scientist at Allergan, UK, she assumed a research associate position at the University of Manchester. Since 2019, Dri. Write Muelas is holding a research associate position at the University of Liverpool, with main focus on clinical metabolomics.

Presenter: Tito Damiani (Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences)

Dr. Damiani has a background in food and analytical chemistry, with special focus on MS-based techniques. In March 2021, he obtained his Ph.D. degree in Food Science at the University of Parma (Italy). His doctoral research focused on the development of high-throughput non-targeted methodologies for food authenticity applications. During his Ph.D., he spent 9 months at the European Headquarters of Waters Corp. (Wilmslow, UK) in the Scientific Operation department. There, he participated and contributed to several parallel projects, expanding his background knowledge of MS and its combination with different upfront separation techniques (i.e., liquid-chromatography and ion-mobility) for the analysis of complex biological samples. In November 2020, he joined the “Biochemistry of Plant Specialized Metabolites” research group of Tomáš Pluskal at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (IOCB) in Prague as post-doc funded by the “IOCB Postodoctoral Fellowship”. There, he is carrying out research to develop novel multi-omics methodologies to discover new natural products with pharmacological properties from plants sources and elucidate their biosynthetic origin.