michele.woelk [at] tu-dresden.de
Tel: +49 351 796-5631
Fax: +49 351 796-36699
Twitter: @MicheleWoelk

Michele Wölk

PostDoctoral Researcher

Michele received her bachelor’s degree from TU Dresden, M.Sc. in Structural Chemistry and Spectroscopy and PhD in Chemistry from the University of Leipzig. During her PhD project she developed the expertise in bioanalytical chemistry and fell in love with mass spectrometry ( Food Chemistry 2020 & 2022, Foods 2020 & 2021, Antioxidants 2020, Analytical Chemistry 2022, Molecules 2022). She joined Maria’s group at TU Dresden as a postdoctoral researcher in October 2021 where she applies her knowledge in mass spectrometry based lipidomics to address lipidome plasticity and lipid quality control.

Research interests

Michele works with all our mass spec instrumentation, keeps it fit and running (which is not an easy job!), develops and optimise LC-MS/MS based targeted and untargeted workflows for numerous lipidomics applications we have at LMAI, as well as data processing pipelines. She is proficient in many lipidomics software tools including LipidHunter, Lipostar2, and Skyline for targeted lipidomics. (check out the tutorial she prepared on lipidomics applications in Skyline!)

By using all advanced technologies mentioned above, Michele focuses her research on the role of lipids and their dynamics in conditions characterized by lipid dysmetabolism. Within DFG project “Understanding dynamics of lipid metabolism and oxidation in ferroptotic cell death programme” (Part of DFG SPP2306) she is looking at lipidome plasticity upon redox stress by temporally and quantitatively resolving the dynamics of over 500 lipid molecular species at cellular and subcellular levels. Understanding how cells adapt and remodel their lipidomes under stress conditions is crucial to decipher the mechanism of Lipid Quality Control (LQC). Michele is tackling this question from the perspective of ferroptotic cell death.

In 2023 Michele received independent funding from MeDDrive program by Medical Faculty Carl Gustav Carus of the TUD. Within the project “ Dysregulated systemic release of metabolic and bioactive lipids along hepatocyte-VLDL axis”, she is looking at the cross-talk between cellular (lipid droplets) and systemic (lipoproteins) lipid storage and trafficking systems.