Ongoing research projects
Lipid-based communication with the tumor microenvironment
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Within the FWF research group on the action of metal anti-cancer drugs in the tumor microenvironment, we investigate how tumor-specifically activated drugs impact on the lipidome of cancer cells. This cooperation project of the Medical University Vienna and the University of Vienna was funded with 1.4 M € and we use it to extend our existing analytical toolbox based on liquid chromatography and high resolution mass spectrometry for lipid profiling in different tumor cells and compartments. Our final goal is to understand lipid-based communication with the tumor microenvironment.
Glycolipidomics
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As glycolipids contain a sugar head group linked to a lipid subunit causing amphiphilic properties, they are neither well covered by common glycomics nor lipidomics workflows. Many important glycolipid classes are known, but their action in vivo is not well understood due to their challenging analysis. To bridge this gap, we aim to develop specialized glycolipidomics analysis strategies which are currently not available.
Application areas:
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Glycolipidomics to monitor plants as indicators for climate change
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Biotechnological glycolipidomics: Cell state marker in differentiation processes
Development of novel LC-MS based multiomics assays
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The combination of liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry (LC-MS) has proven to be extremely powerful in the sensitive and fast analysis of thousands of compounds in parallel. Therefore, LC-MS evolved as a key technology in the omics disciplines. LC-MS-based workflows can be successfully applied for proteomics, metabolomics, lipidomics, and gylcolipidomics workflows. It is even possible to collect information about the genome and transcriptome using targeted assays.
In the Rampler lab, we develop innovative LC-MS-based multiomics workflows which enable to combine multi-molecular information from a single sample.
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