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Congratulations to the following PhD candidates who will be presenting their research in just 3 minutes during HUPO 2024 world congress in Dresden!

Alireza Nameni
I am currently a third-year PhD student at VIB-UGent Belgium, with a background in artificial intelligence and engineering. My research includes various projects with a primary focus on iDeepLC, a deep learning-based retention time predictor for modified peptides, and the Mokapot project, which enhances peptide-spectrum match identification using nonlinear machine learning algorithms.

Johanna Wallner
Hi there, I am Johanna. I studied Biochemistry at TU Munich and developed a passion for proteomics towards the end of my master's studies. This led me to pursue a PhD at OmicScouts GmbH, a company specializing in proteomics-based research. I am also affiliated with the Sieber Chair at TU Munich. The project I will present here is a collaboration with the Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology. Our goal is to develop an easy-to-use model system for studying a variety of viral infections.

Julian Müller
Hi! I'm Julian, a PhD student at the Chair of Proteomics and Bioanalytics at TUM, Germany. I'm a bioinformatician by training and fell in love with proteomics during my masters, so you will find me either at a PC or in front of a mass spec. My PhD project revolves around cellular signaling cascades, particularly those involving phosphorylation. Our group uses phosphoproteomics and kinase inhibitors to study these signaling cascades, and my job is to write software that facilitates the analysis and interpretation of these large datasets.

Julia Schessner
After studying molecular biotechnology at the University of Heidelberg for my Bachelor's and Master's degree I returned to my hometown Munich and started my PhD at the Max-Planck-Institute of Biochemistry. Throughout my studies I always worked in the wet-lab, as well as the dry-lab, writing data analysis tools for the data I acquired myself. This was a perfect fit for my work on the subcellular organization of the proteome, where I needed to use all my skills from cell culture to data analysis to drive my projects. What grounds me is my 2 year-old daughter who I hope to inspire to always follow her curiosity and to never stop learning.

Carmen Garcia Duran
I am a PhD student in the Department of Microbiology and Parasitology at Complutense University of Madrid under the supervision of Dr Concha Gil. My research focuses on the study of microbiota in disease using metaproteomics, with special interest in sepsis and long-COVID. The main objective is to gain a deeper understanding of these communities and identify disease biomarkers, such as microbial proteins or microorganisms.

Ericka Itang
Ericka Itang is a third-year PhD student at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany. She has developed a workflow that combines dimethyl-based labeling and sample multiplexing with data-independent acquisition, known as multiplexed-DIA (mDIA). Recently, she applied this mDIA workflow to the proteomics analysis of clinical samples such as urine and plasma to map the landscape of pediatric health and disease. Her research interests also include investigating the role of endogenous peptides in therapeutics. Born and raised in the Philippines, Ericka moved to Germany in 2021 to further her education and expand her horizons in scientific research.

Yu Zong
I am a PhD student from Fudan University, Shanghai, China. My research interest involves applying artificial intelligence to solve important questions in proteomics. My main work focuses on predicting phosphopeptides and glycopeptides spectra using advanced deep learning models.

Shaufa Shareef
As a final-year PhD student, I am researching biomarker discovery for infectious diseases such as COVID-19, and investigating the mechanistic basis of immune responses to such conditions. I am a biochemist by training, with a focus on clinical biochemistry and the relationship between scientific discovery and how that translates to clinical practice.  I grew up in Maldives, studied in the UK, and have worked in various aspects of the Maldivian health sector. As such, I also have a keen interest in health inequalities and the disproportionate effect of infectious diseases in this context. I look forward to gaining more insights in the field during HuPo 2024.

Linus Wollenweber
Linus is a second year PhD student in Albert Heck's lab at Utrecht University. Coming from a background in Molecular Biotechnology, he is working on the mass spectrometric analysis of intact Antibody fragments (Fabs). He is currently expanding the toolbox required to measure antibodies from human specimen with clonal resolution. This requires method development in sample preparation, purification, and work on appropriate LC-MS methods to analyze the complex samples.

Robbe Devreese
I am a first-year PhD student in the CompOmics group at the VIB-UGent Center for Medical Biotechnology in Ghent, Belgium. My research focuses on enhancing the prediction of collisional cross-sections of peptides in ion mobility-assisted LC/MS-MS. The aim of my PhD project is to utilize these improved predictions for more sensitive and specific analysis of (clinical) DIA proteomics data.

Annica Preikschat
My name is Annica Preikschat, I graduated from Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen in the field of immunology and I am now working at AG Tenzer in the Core facility of proteomics in the Institute of Immunology at the Unimedical Center of Mainz. My PhD is supported by the Transmed Training program and connects both, immunology and mass spectrometry. The project aims to identify peptides which are important for the adaptive immune response in rheumatoid arthritis patients. This will help to better characterize arthritis and might result in the development of a treatment.

Dominik Lux
Dominik Lux is a computer scientist pursuing his PhD in Bioscience at the Medical Proteome Center, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. He focuses on unidentified mass spectrometry data by incorporating besides well-known protein sequences, mutations, variants, and more. By utilizing graphs and established methods, he aims to identify such entries. His PhD research focuses on gaining a deeper understanding of Parkinson's disease, though his approach and tools can be broadly applied.

Daniel Flender
Daniel Flender is a PhD candidate at the University of Antwerp and the Flemish Institute for Technological Research ( VITO), specializing in immunopeptidomics in non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). His research aims to identify and analyze peptide antigens, with the goal of developing targeted immunotherapies and advancing cancer treatment strategies. By uncovering specific peptides that can trigger immune responses, Daniel's work aims to enhance the precision and effectiveness of cancer treatments. His contributions are pivotal in advancing our understanding of immune system interactions with cancer, ultimately striving to improve patient outcomes and innovate therapeutic approaches in oncology.