Emma Schymanski

Prof. Emma Schymanski, Head of Environmental Cheminformatics, Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), University of Luxembourg, Avenue du Swing 6, L-4367 Belvaux, Luxembourg

Title

 Exposomics: Where Systems Biology meets Chemistry

Abstract

Even several years after starting my environmental cheminformatics group at a biomedical institute, this still often feels like a “two worlds collide” experience, with different terminology, methods and preferred representations often alienating each side. Yet both fields have much to learn from one another and can combine to form something greater than the sum of the parts, exemplified in the growing community interest in exposomics. In this keynote lecture I would like to highlight the recent activities within the Environmental Cheminformatics group that help these worlds speak to one another, especially focusing on our open science community efforts to develop computational non-target high resolution mass spectrometry methods for exposomics. This tour will include our challenges dealing with the environmentally-relevant “chemical space” and how to create efficient yet informative subsets (e.g., PubChemLite for Exposomics, chemical stripes and other prioritization methods) to aid in data interpretation. Next the tour will move onto our Open Data exchange efforts, with activities such as MassBank, the NORMAN Suspect List Exchange (NORMAN-SLE) and increasing transformation reaction coverage with ShinyTPs, through to integrating this data into open knowledgebases such as PubChem and workflows such as patRoon. Finally, the tour will wrap up with applications to several studies in the group where both the environment and metabolism play a role, including environmental case studies all the way through to identifying potential exposure modifiers related to disease progression in neurodegenerative disorders. Many thanks to all group members, collaborators and colleagues who have been a part of these efforts bringing two very different worlds together!

Biography

Professor Emma Schymanski is head of the Environmental Cheminformatics (ECI) group and Deputy Director at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), University of Luxembourg and special advisor to the rector for Open Science and Research Data Management. She became Full Professor in 2023, Associate Professor and Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) ATTRACT Fellow in 2018, following a 6 year postdoc at Eawag, Switzerland and a PhD at UFZ, Leipzig, Germany. Before her PhD she was a consulting environmental engineer in Perth, Australia and holds a double degree in Chemistry and Environmental Engineering from UWA, Australia. She is involved in many collaborative efforts, with >15,000 citations, >100 publications and a book. Her research combines cheminformatics and computational (high resolution) mass spectrometry approaches to elucidate the unknowns in complex samples, primarily with non-target screening, and relate these to environmental causes of disease. An advocate for FAIR and open science, she is involved in, supervises and organizes several European and worldwide activities to improve the exchange of data, information and ideas between scientists to push progress in this field.