Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin

Academic Career and Research Areas

Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin is an expert in metabolomics and analytical chemistry. He performs tailored metabolite analyses in nutritional and health-related studies integrating information on chemical dynamics of the microbiome with existing multiomics data. The analytical approaches used combine seperation techniques, ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry, high field nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy with bioinformatic tools to describe complex organic systems on a molecular level. A focus of his research in the last two decades was to implement mass spectrometry as a rapid and robust tool for deep metabotyping and metabolite profiling in various sample matrices, e.g. body fluids, natural or processed foods.

Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin received his diploma as engineer (1987) and MSc (1990) from the Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine (INPL) in Nancy, France. In 1995 he passed successfully his first doctorial thesis in ecological chemistry at the Technical University of Munich, followed by his second PhD in 1996 conferred by the Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine (INPL). Philippe started his professional career in 1995 at the US-Environmental Protection Agency in Athens, Geogia and went on as a young scientist at the Institute of Ecological Chemistry (IOEC) of the Gesellschaft für Strahlenforschung (GSF) in Attaching, Germany. In 2001 he became group and later on research unit leader of IOEC at Helmholtz Munich. Since 2011 he is director of the independent research unit Analytical Biogeochemistry at Helmholtz Munich and head of the Foodomics Platform at the Technical University of Munich.

Philippe is currently appointed as professor and expert in several european committees:

• Science Advisory Board (SAB) “miTarget 5042” DFG research group on Chronic intestinal diseases
• Executive member at NASA and JAXA in the 'soluble organic matter analysis' teams for sample return missions HAYABUSA2 and OSIRIS-REx
• Science Advisory Board (SAB) of laboratoire de Procédés Alimentaires et Microbiologiques at the Université de Bourgogne, France
• Scientific expert of the Institut Francais du Pétrole et des Energies Nouvelles (IFPEN)
• Science Advisory Board (SAB) of the Centre de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Bordeaux (CGFB), France
• Science Advisory Board (SAB) of the French Metabolomics National investment "MetaboHub"
• Science Advisory Board (SAB) at the French FT-ICR-MS network (TGE FTICR (FR3624)
• Université Franco-Allemande (UFA) / Deusch-Französische Hochschule (DFH)