Team – Lipidomics

Team

Cristina Coman

Research Interests: Developing of efficient analytical research tools to advance biomedical research.
Education: Dr. rer. nat. in Chemistry, TU Dortmund University, Germany.
Favorite Scientist: Jasna Peter-Katalinic for her research on lipid and related structures.
Hobbies: Climbing and hiking
Email: cristina.coman@univie.ac.at

Dominik Kopczynski

Research Interests: Developing fast and efficient algorithm for computational lipidomics and proteomics and designing user-friendly and accurate analysis tools for these application areas.
Education: Dr. rer. nat. in Computer Science, TU Dortmund University, Germany.
Favorite Scientist: Gene Meyers for developing suffix arrays as one of the fundamental data structures for fast and low-memory conform pattern matching algorithms as well as for developing the BLAST algorithm to be the most used algorithm for finding local alignments between search text and patterns especially used for mapping DNA and protein data.
Hobbies: Cooking, Cinema, Hiking, Mountain biking, telling terrible jokes
Email: dominik.kopczynski@univie.ac.at

Stefanie Rubenzucker

Research Interests: Developing novel workflows for the investigation of lipids in signaling events, with a special interest in adipocyte differentiation.
Education: MSc in Chemistry, University of Vienna, Austria
Favorite Scientist: Rosalind Franklin, for her invaluable contribution to our current understanding of molecular biology and virology.
Hobbies: Pottery, hiking, baking
Email: stefanie.rubenzucker@univie.ac.at

Magdalena Figlmüller

Research Interest: Enhancing our understanding of molecular pathways governing biological processes by developing and optimizing workflows across life science disciplines.
Education: MSc in Molecular Biology, University of Vienna, Austria
Favorite Scientist: Jane Goodall (born 1934), for her peaceful approach to studying chimpanzees while protecting their natural habitat, and her continuing efforts to inspire youth to take (conservation) matters into their own hands. And Robert Ahrends (born 1979), for helping me pay my bills. 🙂
Hobbies: Hiking, music, puzzles, travel
Email: magdalena.figlmueller@univie.ac.at :

Nina Troppmair

Research Interests: Developing lipidomics workflows to dissect the role of sphingolipids, especially in adipogenesis.
Education: MSc in Chemistry, University of Vienna, Austria
Favorite Scientist: Rosalind Franklin (1920 – 1958) for her contribution to the discovery of the structure of DNA, which were largely recognized as such only posthumously.
Hobbies: Skiing, climbing, swimming
Email: nina.troppmair@univie.ac.at

Alexander Wenger

Research Interests: Method development for the investigation of disease related changes of the proteome.
Education: MSc in Medical Biology, University of Salzburg, Austria.
Favorite Scientist: George de Hevesy (1885 – 1966) for his outstanding achievements in the development of isotopes as tracers to study chemical and biological processes.
Hobbies: Snowboarding, Surfing, Music, MMA
Email: alexander.wenger@univie.ac.at

Bianca de Jonckheere

Research Interests: Interaction of proteins and lipids in megakaryocyte differentiation
Education: M.Sc. in Biological Sciences, University of Cologne, Germany
Favorite Scientist: Nicholas Flamel (c. 1330 – 1992) and his posthumous reputation as an alchemist who succeeded in making the philosopher’s stone and become immortal through the “elixir of life”. Or, more seriously, Alexander Fleming and his accidental discovery of penicillin in 1928, which revolutionized medicine and raised the hope that anyone could find something great that one wasn’t looking for.
Hobbies: Tennis, beach volleyball, acryl painting, travel
Email: bianca.de.jonckheere@univie.ac.at

Marcel Benkhoff

Research Interests: Effect of blood lipids on platelet reactivity
Education: Dr. rer. nat in Pharmacy, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany
Favorite Scientist: Linus Pauling (1901 – 1994), who used his outstanding reach as a Nobel laureate in chemistry to fight for disarmament and against war and thus also received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Hobbies: Sports, Cooking, Traveling
Email: TBA

Denise Wolrab

Research Interests: Developing methods and strategies for complex bioanalytical research questions, with special focus on separation science hyphenated to mass spectometry such as UHPSFC/MS.
Education: Dr. rer. nat. in Analytical Chemistry, University of Vienna, Austria
Favorite Scientist: Dedicated scientists who are passionate about theor work, yet unfailingly prioritize respectful, supportive, and friendly interractions with one another, serve as a true source of inspiration.
Hobbies: Baking, hiking, watching children movies
Email: denise.wolrab@univie.ac.at

Aleksandra Tyjan

Interests: Administration, international and national projects
Education: Mag. in German Studies, University of Łódź, Poland
Favorite Scientist: Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) for his pioneering scientific expeditions and a holistic approach to nature, which had a significant impact on modern environmental research. His interdisciplinary perspective and commitment to connecting various fields of knowledge make him a key figure in the history of natural science.
Hobbies: Geocaching, traveling around the world, reading
Email: aleksandra.tyjan@univie.ac.at

Felix Niedermaier

Interests: Developing methods to improve the statistical power of lipid identification in lipidomics mass spectrometry workflows and finding ways to perform quality assurance on their predictions to express this power as a quantifiable metric.
Education: M.Sc. in Bioinformatics, Technical University of Munich and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany
Favorite Scientist: Margaret Hamilton, the computer scientist who headed the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory’s software engineering department and was hired by NASA to develop the guidance system for the Apollo program. She and her team are credited with popularizing the concept of software engineering by writing the code for the lunar module and command module by hand, resulting in a stack of books full of code taller than herself. And most impressively, they managed the entire apollo mission on only 72 kilobytes of computer memory!
Hobbies: Gardening, baking, music, exploring the city, developing software for my home lab
Email: felix.niedermaier@univie.ac.at