KEYNOTES AT A GLANCE

Sarah-Maria Fendt

Sarah-Maria Fendt is a Principal Investigator at the VIB Center for Cancer Biology and full Professor of Oncology at KU Leuven, Belgium. Sarah has a Master of Science degree in Biochemistry from TU Munich and a PhD in Molecular Systems Biology from ETH Zurich. Sarah worked as postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), before starting her independent research program in 2013. 

Zoltan Takats

Professor Takats has obtained his PhD from Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary. He has worked as a post-doctoral research associate at Purdue University, Indiana, USA. After returning to Hungary, he served as Director of Cell Screen Research Centre and also as Head of Newborn Screening and Metabolic Diagnostic Laboratory at Semmelweis University, Budapest.

Marcel Kwiatkowski

Link to his Curriculum Vitae.   

Research at the Bioanalytics & Intermediary Metabolism, Institute of Biochemistry, University of Innsbruck, Austria

Our research aims to elucidate molecular mechanisms at the interface of metabolism and protein function in the context of cellular homeostasis, systems biology, epigenetics, cancer and metabolic diseases. The Kwiatkowski lab specialises in mass spectrometry-based cross-omics. This includes state-of-the-art proteomics, metabolomics and metabolic flux analysis. We combine cross-omics with computational modelling, cell and molecular biology to study the regulatory interplay between cellular metabolism and protein modifications. Our technological advances have always been driven by research questions that cannot be addressed with current tools, from basic biochemistry to personalised medicine and applied biotechnology. We are currently investigating the cellular dynamics of hub metabolites (CoA, acetyl-CoA & acyl-CoAs, SAM, NAD, ATP) and how these molecules control protein modification signatures (acylation, methylation, phosphorylation) and regulatory circuits.