Expertise:

Biochemistry, bioanalytics, molecular biology

Cancer metabolism, lipid hydrolases

(activity-based) proteomics, metabolic tracing, cell culture, in vitro models, clinical samples

 

Sophie studied Biological Chemistry as part of a joint international bachelor’s program between Johannes Kepler University Linz (Austria) and the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice (Czech Republic). She continued with a master's program in Biochemistry and Molecular Biomedicine at TU Graz (Austria) and the University of Graz (Austria), where her curiosity in both biomedical questions and bioanalytical methods was further fostered.

In 2019, Sophie joined the international PhD program DK-MCD (Metabolic and Cardiovascular Disease) at the Medical University of Graz, conducting her doctoral research in the group of Prof. Ruth Birner-Gruenberger. Her PhD work explored the role of lipid hydrolases in lung cancer, combining her interests in cancer biology and metabolism with state-of-the-art analytical techniques such as mass spectrometry-based proteomics and activity-based protein profiling.

Her interest in cancer metabolism deepened during a research stay in the lab of Prof. Matthew Vander Heiden at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT (Cambridge, USA), funded by a Marietta Blau Scholarship and a Marshall Plan Grant. There, she expanded her expertise in genetic manipulation and metabolic tracing - key tools she continues to apply in her current research.

Sophie completed her PhD in 2023, and her thesis "Lipid hydrolysis in cancer metabolism" was awarded a Dissertation Prize by the Austrian Chemical Society (GÖCH).

Since 2024, she has been a postdoctoral researcher in the Bioanalytics group at TU Wien, where she continues to investigate the role of lipid-metabolizing enzymes in cancer, combining biochemical approaches, activity-based proteomics, and metabolic tracing.

External links to publications:

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