Annual Meeting

Dr Kirwan started her career as a clinical veterinarian where she became increasingly interested in translational and evidence based medicine before undertaking a PhD in metabolomics. She now heads the Berlin Institute of Health Metabolomics Platform at Charité University Hospital in Berlin, where she focuses on translational health-related metabolomics, especially on its quality management aspects. She is particularly interested in the gut-brain-heart health triad and how the microbiome influences health. She is a founding member of the German Metabolomics Society, a Central Committee member of the international Metabolomics quality assurance and quality control consortium (MQACC) and is an active member of the Precision Medicine and Pharmacogenomics working group of the International Metabolomics Society.

Lynn Vanhaecke holds a PhD in Bioscience Engineering (2008), is Full Professor and head of the Lab of Integrative Metabolomics at Ghent University (Belgium) since 2011, and holds a 20% appointment at the Institute of Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast (UK) since 2018. Lynn’s major research objectives include the holistic analyses of small molecules through metabolomics and lipidomics using high-resolution mass spectrometry (including ambient ionization) in relation to the diet-microbiome-health axis . In 2023, she received an ERC Consolidator Grant to continue her work on advancing metabolomics into pediatric precision medicine (MeMoSA). She is also involved in many collaborative efforts including the first Flemish Exposome project called Flexigut, and has over 240 publications (H-index 53). Lynn is inventor in a couple of patents and holds a licensing agreement for some of the novel metabolic and lipidomic fingerprinting and metabotyping methods she developed with the company Prodigest. She is an active board member of the Nutritional genomics society, an elected board member of the Metabolomics Society, and member of the Netherlands Metabolomics Centre.

Dr. Thorsten Hornemann is professor for clinical chemistry at the University of Zurich where he leads the lipidomics facility. His primary interest is the sphingolipid metabolism and sphingolipid-related pathologies. His contributions encompass the development of advanced mass spectrometry based analytical methods and metabolic labeling techniques, which have been crucial for investigating the structure, function, and metabolism of sphingolipids.

His work also involves establishing novel lipid metabolites and lipid-based metabolic signatures as diagnostic and prospective biomarkers in context of metabolic diseases. One of his major achievements includes the discovery and characterization of 1-deoxySphinglipids a class of atypical and neurotoxic sphingolipids, which have been pivotal in understanding the pathogenesis of the Hereditary Sensory and Autonomic Neuropathy Type 1 (HSAN1) and the diabetic sensory neuropathy.

His work has significantly contributed to the role of sphingolipid in this condition, highlighting the importance of these lipids on nerve damage and pain perception pathways.