Staff Members of the Institute of Biochemistry, TU - Institut für ...

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Highlights of 2009 In April 2009 the restructuring of the Faculty of Technical Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology resulted in a partial reunification of the Institute of Food Chemistry and Technology with the Institute of Biochemistry. During this reshaping Michael Murkovic with his research group "Chemistry of Functional Foods” joined the Institute of Biochemistry. The research group of Michael Murkovic is mainly interested in the evaluation of reaction mechanisms in foods with respect to the reactivity of antioxidants in relation to the formation of carcinogenic substance during heating of foods. Merging of the two research units has led to a reinforcement of the infrastructure with emphasis on techniques of liquid chromatography and the identification of small molecules. As in the years before, the group of Peter Macheroux was very active in publishing their research results in scientific journals. Among the published articles, one was again selected as best paper of the week by the editors of the Journal of Biological Chemistry (“Hold on to that flavin” published in July). This publication also marked the end of a very successful PhD thesis project submitted by Andreas Winkler who left the institute and joined the Max-Planck- Institute of Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany, as an EMBO long-term postdoctoral fellow. Just before Christmas, Peter Macheroux was awarded the Styrian Research Award for studies on redox-regulated degradation of proteins by the quinone reductase-proteasome complex. This project dates back to Peter Macheroux’ early days at the institute and was supported by several outstanding students and postdocs, most notably Sonja Sollner, Andrea Wagner, Sigrid Deller and Markus Schober. P. Macheroux (right), Styrian Research Award 2009 4 G. Daum (right), Euro Fed Lipid Conference 2009 As in previous years, research in the laboratory of Günther Daum was supported by grants of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). In 2009, a new project devoted to “Phosphatidylserine Decarboxylases of the Yeast” started with two new graduate students, Martina Gsell and Vid V. Flis. In 2009, another project named ACIB (Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology) supported by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) and industry was approved. In this joint project Günther Daum’s group will be involved in applied research devoted to Pichia pastoris cell biology. Another highlight of 2009 was the Euro Fed Lipid Conference (European Federation for the Science and Technology of Lipids) which was held in October
2009 in Graz under the chairmanship of Günther Daum. This conference with more than 600 participants was not only an interesting meeting which combined fundamental and applied research but also an important event for the lipid community in Graz. Günther Daum will also chair a FEBS workshop devoted to Microbial Lipids which will take place in May 2010 in Vienna, Austria. Basic research in Albin Hermetter’s group was performed in three projects focusing on lipid (patho)physiology. His contribution to the GOLD project (speaker R. Zechner, IMB, University of Graz, funded by the GEN-AU program of the BM.W_F) is devoted to the functional proteomic analysis of (phospho)lipases relevant to lipid-associated disorders. In the SFB LIPOTOX (FWF project, speaker R. Zechner) and the recently approved EuroMEMBRANE consortium OXPHOS (speaker P. Kinnunen, University of Helsinki), A. Hermetter studies the toxicity of oxidized phospholipids in the cells of the arterial wall (funded by FWF). Research in this field is also supported by the PhD program “Molecular Enzymlogy” (FWF). Applied research in lipid enzymology has been performed in the Kplus center Applied Biocatalysis at TU Graz (funding by FFG and industry). A. Hermetter (left) and his research group 5 K. Athenstaedt, an independent group leader at the Institute of Biochemistry At the end of the year 2008 a grant application of Karin Athenstaedt was approved by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), which gave her the opportunity to continue her work at our department as an independent researcher. With this project she set the cornerstone to establish her own research group. Karin Athenstaedt’s work is devoted to lipid metabolism in yeast. In December 2009, Christian Weber, a former Assistant Professor at our department, died at the age of 80. Christian Weber was a food chemist and has set the stage for ongoing research in this field at our department during his active career. Moreover, he had been President of the Alumni TU Graz 1887 for many years. We will remember him as a true representative of our university and a kind colleague. Our deep sympathies are with his widow.
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