Paris-Lodron-Universitaet Salzburg

PLUS is the largest educational institute in Salzburg with almost 18,000 students and 2,800 employees in research, teaching and administration. Founded in 1622, it offers 30 fiels of study with research-oriented teaching being a central aspect. The Department of Biosciences has 280 employees covering research from Immunology and Cancer to Ecology and Evolution. The Allergy Cancer BioNano Research Centre achieved >450 publication, >100 grant-funded projects and >14 Mio third party funding in the last 5 years. The doctoral school Biomolecules and the doctoral college Immunity in Cancer and Allergy are located in the Department. 

Gabriele Gadermaier is a habilitated University Docent at PLUS and head of the Molecular and Food Allergy team. Scientific expertise: Identification, production and characterization of allergens, structural analysis of proteins, endolysosomal processing for diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. Teaching expertise in Molecular Biology, Immunology, Citizens Science, Scientific Writing, Ethics and Research Communication. She was PI in 13 national and international basic and translational projects and participated in 16 research projects. She achieved 111 peer-reviewed publications and held 40 oral presentations at scientific congresses. She supervised 11 Ph.D. and 20 M.Sc. theses at PLUS. She is an executive member of the WHO/IUIS Allergen Nomenclature and Allergen Characterization Sub-Committee and a member of the Peer Review Panel of the allergen database COMPARE. In ALLPreT, Dr. Gadermaier is the leader of the supervision and training work package, member of the educational committee, supervisor of Elif Öztemiz Topcu (DC5) and co-supervisor of Isabela Assugeni (DC8).

Elif Öztemiz Topcu is a Ph.D. candidate at the Paris Lodron University Salzburg (PLUS) and holds the position of Doctoral Candidate 5 (DC5) in the ALLPreT project. She obtained her Master's in Biotechnology from Yeditepe University in Istanbul, Turkey. In her previous research, she focused on targeted drug delivery for treating atherosclerosis, using an in vitro atherosclerosis model. In her DC5 project in ALLPreT, she focuses on the development of a standardized in vitro endolysosomal degradation assay to investigate the susceptibility of allergens to endolysosomal proteases digestion and patterns of generated T-cell peptides. The legumes ranging from low to high allergenicity will be tested with the assay. This approach enables the endolysosomal assay to be used to predict the antigenicity and allergenicity of novel foods. As part of her role as DC5, Elif will engage in two secondments, one at InBio in Cardiff, UK, and another at the University Medical Center Utrecht in Dr. Verhoeckx’s laboratory.