Biography

Currently, I hold an University Assistant/Post-doc position at the Medical University of Vienna, Institute for Pharmacology. I am associated to the group of Dr. Christian W. Gruber and the MS Core Facility.

My research interest are:
A) Immune system modulatory peptides. I have investigated the immune system modulatory activity of nature derived cyclic cystine-rich knot (CCK) peptides and contributed to the development of the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) drug candidate T20K. My research work showed that these peptides have an anti-proliferative activity on activated human T-cells and that the mechanism of action is IL2 dependent. The lead T20K was able to halt the progression of the disease in the murine model of MS (EAE) showing protective and prophylactic effects for the relapsing-remitting phase. The full mode of action for T20K is still unknown, but my work provided evidence that it uses a 14-3-3 protein /Foxo3a dependent mechanism or other cytosolic proteins in T-cells since the peptide rapidly accumulates in cells. Additionally, I investigate the prolyl oligopeptidase (POP)/PP2A signal pathway in respect to the antiproliferative effects of cyclic cystine-rich peptides. For example, my research group designs and synthesizes bioactive probes and for bioassay toward T-cell modulation. We aim to identify new candidates for further drug development and for application in disease models, such as MS.

B) Peptide drug development for human disease therapy.
I am coordinator of the PeptAIDes project, a consortia of scientists from three universities who aim to develop peptide therapeutics for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. My research group works on the development of promising peptidic drug candidates for therapy of autoimmune (e.g. Multiple Sclerosis), inflammatory (e.g. Morbus Crohn) and neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. alpha-synucleinopathies). The team combines multidisciplinary knowledge in peptide design and synthesis including computational rational design, peptide pharmacology, pre-clinical bioactivity testing, BBB transport, cell immunology and translational medicine for the selected disease fields. Our mission is to develop promising candidates to drug leads which will be sufficiently characterized in pre-clinical studies to make these compounds interesting for clinical development or to attract attention of the pharmaceutical sector to our technology.

In past post-doctoral research appointments at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna I worked in the laboratory of Dr. Rainer Schuhmacher, expert in metabolomics and for bioactive natural product discovery at the Center for Analytical Chemistry. My research interest embraces the discovery of novel bioactive natural products including potential antimicrobial compounds by an approach combining different bacterial and fungal strains to induce expression of secondary metabolites. A high through-put screening facility enables the fast testing of microbial combinations to shed light on the hidden genetic dark matter. Metabolomic techniques including untargeted, targeted and tracer experiments are applied to identify and subsequently characterize metabolites. Amongst others, stable isotope labeling techniques are applied to facilitate metabolite identification and a bioactive guided fractionation approach enables the isolation of interesting substances.

For my doctoral study, I have worked in the laboratory of Dr. Christian W. Gruber, Associate Professor for molecular pharmacology and bioactive peptide science in the department for pharmacology and physiology at the Medical University of Vienna. In my thesis project, I have dealt with the discovery, analytical characterization, bioactivity assignment and the target deconvolution of plant derived circular peptides (cyclotides). Isolated peptides have been found anti-proliferative toward activated human T-lymphocytes. A chemical proteomics approach including photo-affinity labeling and precipitation experiment of proteins was applied enabling the mass spectrometry guided identification of molecular receptors and enzymes being responsible for the observed phenotype. A probable future therapeutic application of these peptides has been highlighted by an immune system modulation in the EAE mouse model for multiple sclerosis. Besides, I have also worked in the field of receptor pharmacology and bioassay-guided discovery to identify novel peptidic receptor or enzyme modulators.