Dr. Celia Berkers

The research of dr. Celia Berkers centres around metabolomics, an exciting upcoming field that studies the small molecule metabolite profile of the cell, using chemistry-based techniques such as LC-MS and NMR. In particular, she is interested in studying the interplay of drugs with the metabolome. Because small molecule metabolites are the ultimate downstream products of the biomolecular processes in the cell, most diseases as well as the action of drugs induce metabolic changes in cells to meet the changed demands encountered by such cells. Studying these metabolic changes can therefore aid in identifying new targets for therapeutic intervention and elucidate the mode of action of drugs. To unravel the metabolic mode of action of drugs and to study whether cells acquire drug-induced metabolic adaptations to such compounds, she uses a combination of chemical biology and LC-MS-based metabolomics methodologies, in which she combines steady-state metabolomics screens with metabolic flux studies using stable isotope labelling approaches.