2024 Central region candidates 

MSTARS Group Leader, Charite University Medicine Berlin, Germany 

I am the head of the Quantitative Proteomics laboratory at the Charite University Medicine Berlin, Germany. My research group works on proteomics technology development, with a focus on advancing the capabilities of data-independent acquisition (DIA) mass spectrometry towards novel applications that push the limits of throughput and sensitivity, via new workflows as well as computational approaches that we implement in our DIA-NN software suite.

In recent years, proteomics has seen remarkable successes and is playing an increasingly important role in biomedical science. We also have exciting prospects, from proteomics becoming an indispensable tool in many areas of fundamental research, to enhancing the future personalised medicine approaches. Here, I believe, it is essential to make proteomics as open and accessible as possible for scientists working in diverse fields. I am keen to actively contribute to the work of HUPO towards this, and ask you to consider my application to join the HUPO Council 2025-2027.

I would particularly like to join the Education and Training Committee and/or the Marketing and Outreach Committee. In the past, I have co-organised the "Proteomics: from fundamentals to application" training course by the British Biochemical Society (online, 2021) and the "St Nicholas Mass Spectrometry Symposium" (Berlin, 2022), as well as gave guest workshops/lectures at the "Workshop on Single Cell Proteomics" by the Institute of Biotechnology CAS (Prague, 2022) and twice at the "EMBO Practical Course in Targeted Proteomics" (Barcelona, 2022 and 2023). Although so far my experience as an event organiser is limited, I am enthusiastic to continue such work as a member of HUPO Committees, and I believe the scope of my research can be of great help here, in particular when it comes to mass spectrometry-based proteomics data analysis. I ultimately wish to help create resources, organise events and establish training and scientific exchange platforms that will make working with proteomics data an effortless routine task for any biology laboratory. This is also a key part in proteomics outreach, and I am particularly keen to work on engaging scientists from different fields and introducing them to the powerful capabilities of proteomics.

My whole career is devoted to proteome research for and I see HUPO as the leading organization for advancement and promotion of research in our field. It would be an honor to serve on the HUPO Council and contribute to its activities.

Here I will briefly summarize my experience in the field. In 1999 I graduated from the University of Zagreb, Croatia (Major in Molecular Biology), and joined the group of Prof. Dr. Jasna Peter-Katalinic at the Institute for Medical Physics and Biophysics at the University of Muenster, Germany (Institute director Franz Hillenkamp). With Prof. Katalinic I worked on development and application of MS methods to study unstable posttranslational modifications, especially O-glysosylation. In 2003 I obtained PhD in Biology at the University of Muenster. From mid-2003 to mid-2004 I performed a year of compulsory Civil Service in Croatia and in 2004 joined the group of Matthias Mann at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense. In 2005 I moved with the Mann lab from Odense to the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany, where I pursued research on Ser/Thr/Tyr phosphoproteomes of model bacteria and helped in organization of HUPO Conference in Munich. I stayed in Matthias Mann's laboratory until the end of 2008, when I was appointed Junior Professor (W1, tenure-track) at the University of Tuebingen, Germany, and Director of the Proteome Center Tuebingen (PCT). I obtained tenure and was promoted to a full professor in 2014. My scientific interests include proteogenomics, quantitative phosphoproteomics and metaproteomics. In my career I co-authored 192 peer-reviewed publications (51 as senior author), attracted 5,975 Million Euro of external funding, supervised 15 PhD theses (of which four are in progress) and oversaw more than 1000 core facility projects. Since 2015 I serve in the Editorial Board of the journal Molecular and Cellular Proteomics.

Molecular physiologist (PhD Paris 6 University) and computational biologist (MSc. Institut Pasteur Paris) by training, I have been working in different environment (academic, biotech and software companies), learning at the interface of various disciplines, from Physiology and Cellular biology to Computational Biology applied to Genomics and Proteomics field. I am research director at the CEA (Fundamental Research Division) where I now coordinate research activities for digital health based on multi-omics approaches.

My research interests focuses on designing bioinformatics tools and strategies to leverage the ever-increasing wealth and diversity of "omics" data for biomarkers discovery, and for the investigation of physiopathological processes. I served on the Executive Committee of the French Proteomics Society for eight years. As training manager of the French Proteomics Infrastructure, I organized practical sessions in computational proteomics for young as well as experienced researchers. I also contributed to the development of the Galaxy for proteomics (via the ProteoRE application) and to the European Elixir proteomics community, participating in the dissemination of proteomics data analysis pipelines. For many years, I have taken part in HUPO initiatives such as co-PI of c-HPP (Human Proteome Project), co-founder and co-organizer of the "Bioinformatics Hub", as member of the HUPO awards committee and more recently as contributor to the Human Plasma Proteome Project.

As a member of the HUPO council, I will continue to promote the use of computational proteomics resources (data, tools, workflows), and facilitate their access and use to non-expert users (e.g. via the Galaxy Training for Proteomics). At last, I am convinced that supporting new talents and stimulating exchange of ideas and interactions between dry and wet lab scientists through dedicated events organized by HUPO are essential to tackle tomorrow's challenges. Through my involvement in these community efforts, I will contribute to initiatives that stimulate excitement for proteomics and extend the outreach of HUPO towards the broader scientific community