What does the Professorship for Food Metabolome actually do?

Susanne Baldermann is Professor of Food Metabolome at Faculty VII of the University of Bayreuth based at the Kulmbach Campus. In this interview, she explains what she is researching and how this could affect food quality and the prevention of diseases.

27.06.2022

What specifically are you researching at the new faculty in Kulmbach?
Vegetables are an excellent source of micronutrients, vitamins, and health-promoting plant metabolites, which are also known as secondary metabolites. Epidemiological studies indicate that secondary metabolites or plant foods can reduce the risk of various non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. It is estimated that several thousand metabolites are present in the human diet. We investigate the complex, dynamic changes in metabolite profiles and adaptation mechanisms using mass spectrometric methods. For example, we are interested in the impact of changing environmental conditions or processing on metabolite profiles as well as their consequences for human nutrition.

What do you see as the (potential) benefits of this research?
I have the vision that our research can contribute to improving the resilience of food systems and the safety and quality of plant-based foods. Furthermore, metabolomics offers the opportunity to improve the understanding of the complex relationships for instance between nutrition, health, and exercise.

Do you cooperate with companies or public institutions in the region? With which ones and in what way?
Even though getting to know the local players was somewhat awkward in the pandemic, we were able to bring our initial ideas for research and teaching to life in Kulmbach. For example, we ran our first practical lab courses as guests at Max-Rubner or explored the knowledge about regional products in the framework of a seminar in the museums at Mönchshof.. Together with my colleague Jun.-Prof. Dr. Laura M. König and supported by Edeka Seidl, we will be working on the topic of "Fresh and aromatic: Does Vertical Farming live up to its promises? I am looking forward to implementing more ideas in the region into research and teaching.

Personal background

Prof. Dr. Susanne Baldermann studied food chemistry at the TU Braunschweig from 1996 to 2001 and subsequently completed erwards the professional training for food chemists in Lower Saxony. Already during her studies and doctoral course on formation pathways of carotenoid-derived flavour compounds in tea, nectarines and sweet osmanthus, she conducted parts of her research abroad. From 2007 she worked as apostdoc and research associate at the University in Shizuoka, Japan. from 2007. Since 2012, she has worked at the University of Potsdam and the Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ) e.V. in Großbeeren.

What is metabolomics?

The aim of metabolomics is to detect, using complementary analytical methods, as many low-molecular metabolites (small molecules) in a food, or in a biological system such as the human body as possible. It is estimated that there are up to 250,000 metabolites, of which we ingest about 5,000 to 10,000 with our food. Dueto technological developments in mass spectrometry and the ongoing development of data analysis and processing, it is now possible to determine these complex metabolite profiles and their dynamic changes.

Prof. Dr. Susanne BaldermannProfessor for Food Metabolom

Faculty VII of Life Sciences: Food, Nutrition & Health
Campus in Kulmbach
University of Bayreuth
Fritz-Hornschuch-Straße 13
D-95326 Kulmbach
Phone: +49 (0) 9221 / 40798-10 oder -11
E-mail: susanne.baldermann@uni-bayreuth.de
www.f7.uni-bayreuth.de