Speakers and abstracts

NOTE: Speaker information will be added once they are confirmed

 

Ahmed Ali

Head of the single cell team at Leiden University

 

Thomas Hankemeier

Professor and head of the Metabolomics and Analytics Centre at Leiden University

 

Justin van der Hooft

BioInformatics lecturer at Wageningen University

Ahmed Ali

Ahmed Ali is an assistant professor of Biomedical Sciences at LACDR, Leiden University. He Leads single cell research within the Metabolomics and Analytics Centre, and is a visiting researcher at Shimizu’s group, BDR, RIKEN, Japan, and Misr International University, Egypt. His research involves developing innovative analytical methods tailored for small-volume, or single cell analysis to enable metabolomics-driven systems biology in personalized health strategies. Ahmed is successful at leading his single cell team because he prides himself on thinking up crazy ideas which put him at the forefront of the field. Ahmed is also a lecturer, teaching a Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry course for the master students. This gives him the unique perspective of seeing students both in the classroom and in the lab. Ahmed is fueled by seeing his impact on his students, creating a wonderful cascade of introducing mass spectrometry at its most basic fundamentals to guidance in the lab creating kick ass scientists. While Ahmed has authored many publications during his time at Leiden University, he still looks back very fondly on pouring his heart and soul into his Analytical Chemsitry publication during his PhD. Ahmed is very approachable, so feel free to say hello when you see him!

 

Abstract to be provided by speaker.

Thomas Hankemeier

Thomas is passionate about translating research into technology that actually helps people. As one of the pioneers of metabolomics with mass spectrometry, he has participated in several consortia and heads the largest mass spectrometry facility in the Netherlands. In persuit of bringing technology out of the lab and into clinics and homes, Thomas holds more than 20 patents. A true visionary, Thomas sees the benefit of multidisciplinary teams and not only participates in collaborations, but he has also cofounded two start up companies.

 

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Thomas will be welcoming participants at the opening of the school.

 

Justin van der Hooft

Justin J.J. van der Hooft is an Assistant Professor in Computational Metabolomics in the Bioinformatics Group at Wageningen University & Research, NL, and an author of >100 peer-reviewed articles in the metabolomics field. Justin is very fascinated by the ingenuity of nature in creating marvellous chemical structures. He obtained his PhD (2012) in Systematic Metabolite Annotation and Identification at the Biochemistry and Bioscience groups in Wageningen. After a postdoctoral period in Glasgow, UK, studying both analytical and computational aspects of metabolite structure annotation, and together with Joe Wandy & Simon Rogers coining MS2LDA unsupervised substructure discovery, he returned to Wageningen. Since 2020, his team has been developing computational metabolomics strategies to decompose mass spectral data into structure and substructure information. By linking genome and metabolome mining, his team studies plant, food, and microbiome-associated metabolites to find novel bioactive metabolites. Recently developed tools and frameworks include MS2Query to perform analogue search, FERMO to prioritize metabolite features and profiles by enabling effective and reproducible data integration and data filtering strategies, and NPLinker to handle multi-omics data for natural products discovery. Since 2022, he is also a Visiting Professor in Johannesburg. Got interested? Find out more and meet the team here: https://vdhooftcompmet.github.io.

 

Abstract to be provided by speaker.