One of the most fundamental challenges for all living organisms is to sense and respond to their contiguous environment and nutrient-derived signals in order to adapt their metabolism and physiology to promote survival and achieve balanced growth. Thus, coordination of metabolic and signaling processes must be strictly coordinated to meet the specific requirements of cells and organisms.

The Molecular Metabolism and Metabolomics Research unit focuses on understanding metabolic regulation and signaling at a both molecular and a systemic level. We aim at unraveling how metabolism of nutrients and metabolites is controlled and thus how they flow through intracellular pathways (biochemical flux) upon genetic, environmental and nutritional perturbations to further understand the development of various diseases like obesity, diabetes, neurological disorders and cancers.

We use animal and cellular models in combination with analytical chemistry and mass spectrometry-based metabolomics to untangle how metabolism is regulated at the molecular level. Furthermore, we have a long-standing interest in studying how lipids are synthesized, transported and metabolized and how they act as signaling molecules and their role in maintenance of cellular homeostasis.