Research Focus
The strongest aspect of my research program lies in its transdisciplinary nature. In over more than twenty years of active time in academia, I have developed an expertise in a variety of research fields. In many collaborations, I analyze multidimensional datasets and make sense out of this data, putting together arrays of disparate data pieces and generating testable hypotheses ready for experimental validation. With that, we are constantly building the forest out of individual trees.
My lab has discovered many biomarkers for chronic liver diseases, cancer and other illnesses, a biosynthesis of the melanin in human adipose, two novel properties of cell-free DNA, and a variety of novel functions for known biomolecules. Recently, my lab has entered a field of anti-aging research. We dissect major pathophysiological components of aging, namely systemic inflammation, insulin resistance, and organ fibrosis. Our work in personalized medicine has a particular emphasis on longitudinal monitoring and management of health in pre-symptomatic individuals, and augmenting the body’s homeostasis by non-pharmacological means.
