PhD defence Y. (Yang) Zhang

Quantitative phosphoproteomics and multi-omics from technical concepts to patients

Toward the development of new therapies for personalized medicine Next-generation sequencing technologies are widely used to map the transcriptome of cancers and metabolic diseases. To cover the full spectrum of pathobiochemical processes, multi-omics approaches are increasingly adopted to integrate the genome and transcriptome with the proteomic and metabolomic dimensions.In her PhD thesis, Yang Zhang (i) evaluates the performance of different quantitative methods for tumor tissue phosphoproteomics; (ii) investigate the tumor heterogeneity of ovarian cancer at the level of the phosphoproteome, (iii) characterize the interactome and phosphoproteome of a novel complex involving the metabolic master regulator mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) and (iv) map alterations in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) by integrative multi-omics of the transcriptome, proteome and lipidome.

Zhangs thesis harnesses the power of phosphoproteomics and integrated multi-omics for the discovery of disease mechanisms linked to the metabolic master regulator mTOR and highly prevalent diseases characterized by complex metabolic alterations (ovarian cancer and NAFLD). Further integration and validation of my findings may open new avenues in personalized medicine.

Promotores Prof.dr. P.L. Horvatovich, Prof.dr. R.P.H. Bischoff and Prof.dr. K. Thedieck