Silke Heinzmann

 

 

 

Nutritional modulation of metabolic phenotypes

 

Metabolic profiles contain a wealth of information and are influenced by various factors such as gender, age, BMI and genetic background. Diet is an important factor, and long-term dietary habits as well as short-term food challenges alter the metabolic phenotype. It becomes more and more apparent, that another important factor influencing our metabolome is the gut microbiota and this is in interplay with diet and predisease aetiologies such as obesity.

My research focus is in the influence of nutritional intervention on a person’s metabolic phenotype as well as other factors directly or indirectly altering the response to food challenges. To address this research question I investigated several influences on the metabolic phenotype:

I) Systematic detection of food biomarkers and biomarker validation using small-scale nutritional intervention studies and large-scale epidemiological datasets (INTERMAP Study, PIs Prof. Jeremiah Stamler, Prof. Paul Elliott)

Robust biomarkers provide objective assessment of dietary intakes in population studies, but few food-specific biomarkers have been identified. This makes it necessary to include food questionnaires in population studies. A novel analytical approach has been developed combining metabonomics, a metabolism-driven top-down systems biology approach and targeted profiling in intervention studies and free-living populations to identify and validate new food biomarkers.

II) Development of new analytical approaches using NMR-based metabonomics and multivariate data analysis to characterise individual’s metabolic phenotype

One of the main aims of nutritional research is to generate personalized lifestyle recommendations to improve health. It is therefore necessary to characterize the metabolic phenotype of individuals and to establish the extent to which we can influence this phenotype by nutritional intervention. NMR-based metabonomics has been used to select metabolite pattern that characterise individuals (i.e. a personal metabolic phenotype).

III) Metabolic characterisation of C57Bl/6 mice with different genetic background and the influence of gut microflora modulation (Collaboration with Prof. Jeffrey I. Gordon)

The effect of gut microbiota on digestive health, energy harvest and immune response draws increasing interest in the scientific community. To address the question of what bacterial species influence host metabolism and to directly link gut microflora co-metabolites to distinct species, we analyse several biofluids and tissue samples from C57Bl/6 mice with a defined microbiota community on different genetic background.   

Education

2005 - 2006 M.Sc. in Nutrition and Food Science at the Technical University of Munich, Germany

2001 - 2004 B.Sc. in Nutrition at the Technical University of Munich, Germany

2000 - 2001 Study of Nutritional Science at the University of Hohenheim, Germany

1991 - 2000 Gymnasium (Grammar School) in Brackenheim, Germany

Practical Experience

2006 Master's Thesis in Nutritional Science at Nestle Research Center, Lausanne, Switzerland
"Nutritional Metabonomics"

2005 Internship at TTZ Bremerhaven, Germany
Development of innovative recipes for "Molecular Gastronomy" (European project INICON)

2004 - 2005 Internship at the University of California, Davis in the
Analytical Core Lab of Prof. Bruce D. Hammock
"Application and development of Metabolic Fingerprinting (GC-MS and LC-HR-TOF-MS) and Oxilipid Profiling (HPLC-MS)"

2003 Internship at Milupa GmbH in the protein research lab in Friedrichsdorf, Germany
"Extraction, characterization and comparison of different animal caseins"

2003 Work as scientific assistant at the Chair of Technical Microbiology of Prof. Rudi Vogel
"High pressure treatment of bacteria"

2002 Internship at Degussa AG Texturant Systems in the Chemical Modification lab in Freising, Germany
"Method optimization for the quantification ofgalacturonic acid in pectins"

2001 - 2002 Work as scientific assistant at the Chair of Physiology and Human Nutrition of Prof. Hannelore Daniel
"Measurement of Ca2+-retention in prebiotic-fed rats per atomic absorption spectrometry"

Presentations

Metabolomics & More Conference 2010 Munich, Germany

Metabolic phenotyping approaches to food biomarker discovery (poster presentation)

 

EPI-NPAM Conference of the American Heart Association 2010, San Francisco, USA

Urinary biomarker proline betaine predicts citrus intake and is associated with ‘healthy’ dietary pattern: A metabolic phenotype approach to biomarker discovery (oral presentation)

 

Nutrigenomics Week 2009, Tuscany, Italy

A novel strategy for food biomarker identification in large-scale epidemiological studies: Application to citrus fruit intake (poster presentation)

 

Invitation from Prof. Jeffrey I. Gordon, Center for Genome Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, USA (2009)

Metabonomics and metagenomics (oral presentation)

 

ASM Conference "Beneficial Microbes" 2008, San Diego, USA

Obesity-related metabolic and gut microbial differences in humans - Strategy for linking metabolic phenotyping and metagenomics (poster presentation)

 

Systems and Synthetic Biology Symposium 2008, London, UK

Top-down systems biology in nutritional research - Modelling inter-individual and food-related differences in human metabolite profiles (poster presentation)

 

Nutrigenomics Week 2008, Potsdam, Germany

How does diet influence our metabolism? - Inter-individual and food-related differences in human metabolite profile (poster presentation)

Funding

Nestle PhD Sponsorship