NMR International COVID-19 Research Network at Work

Webinar Invitation

In the current worldwide COVID-19 pandemic situation, fast developments are needed, not only in vaccines, but also in analytical techniques to detect the infection, predict outcomes during hospitalization, and more important towards Long COVID. Successful development of diagnostic routines needs a large number of samples and spectroscopic data generated thereof as well as comprehensive metadata coverage.

Initiated by Bruker and under the guidance of the Australian National Phenome Center (ANPC) run by Prof. Jeremy Nicholson, a worldwide international COVID Research Network consisting of several institutions collaborate, using completely standardized NMR procedures producing spectral data, exchangeable and integrable across the Network. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy technology is a robust analysis technique that can provide a solution to the challenges of COVID-19 diagnosis and prediction based on metabolic changes caused by the virus once RUO results can be transferred into certified routines.

In the webinar series, prominent members of the Network will present the advantage of exchanging data and their results along with detection, outcome prediction, and Long-COVID risks and monitoring.

Speakers

Dr. Jeremy Nicholson

BSc PhD CChem FRSC CBiol FRSB FRCPath FMedSci HonFRCP
Pro-Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences

An internationally renowned pioneer in metabolic phenotyping and systems medicine, Professor Nicholson is the Pro Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences at Murdoch University and a Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher who has authored more than 700 peer-reviewed papers on molecular aspects of body systems medicine. A Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Science, Professor Nicholson comes to WA from Imperial College London where he was the founding director of the MRC-NIHR National Phenome Centre.

Dr. Oscar Millet

Principal Investigator CIC bioGUNE

Dr. Oscar Millet is the group leader of the Precision Medicine and Metabolism group of the CIC bioGUNE. His research focuses on the use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in the study of biologically relevant proteins and enzymes, paying special attention to the metabolic information that can be extracted from biological samples such as serum and urine. He has been awarded the Real Sociedad Española de Química prize (2004), the Spanish NMR group prize (2005), and the Innovation Award of the Basque Government (2018). He is the scientific founder of the spin-off Atlas Molecular Pharma and is the president of the Spanish Chemical Biology Group.

Ulrich Günther

University of Lübeck, Professor of Metabolomics - Institute for Chemistry and Metabolomics

The scientific focus of his research group is focussed on metabolomics and metabolism, mainly using NMR methods. He built the HWB-NMR facility at the University of Birmingham as a leading UK and European NMR centre, with involvements in many European infrastructure and research projects. His engagement in metabolomics research includes real-time metabolism, tracer-based methods in particular to study metabolism in cancer cells, metabolomics in a medical context (with recent work on the effect of COVID-19 on the blood metabolome) and metabolomics in a nutritional context. He enjoys working in a European and international context and has coined projects such as WordWide-NMR (WW-NMR) which included NMR centres from across the world, including China, India, and countries in South America, together with several European sites, to exchange staff members and to run joint international workshops around the world. He has been coordinator of several EU MarieCurie ITN networks, all focussed on NMR-methods and tracer-based metabolism (FP7 Metaflux, H2020 EUROPOL and HaemMetabolome). In 2018 he won a grant from EPSRC which will fund a 1GHz spectrometer for the HWB-NMR facility as part of a £20Million funding initiative which supports high-field NMR across the UK. He has also been part of several EU infrastructure (EU-NMR and Bio-NMR) and an eInfrastructure (PheNomeNal). He has published around 100 publications (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ulrich_Guenther, RG score 38, h-index 29). Since Oct 2019 he is Professor of Metabolomics at the University of Lübeck.

Christoph Trautwein

Siemens Imaging Center, Department of Preclinical Imaging and Radiopharmacy, University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Group Leader Metabolomics & Systems Medicine

Dr. Christoph Trautwein raised up in Southern Germany nearby Stuttgart where he first studied Environmental Engineering prior moving 2007 to Freiburg for his PhD and a second career in Molecular Medicine. After a Postdoc 2015-2016 at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology he joined the Werner Siemens Imaging Center in the year 2017 where he now is leading the research group for Metabolomics & Systems Medicine.

Research use only. Bruker NMR instruments are not intended for use in clinical diagnostic procedures