Research

My research is devoted to the understanding of venomous and poisonous animals, their toxins and their implementation for human benefit.
On this mission, my work is not limited to the commonly studied groups in toxinology. Instead, I aim to work on a broad selection of rarely studied animals throughout the whole kingdom Animalia. In my research, I utilise a plethora of methodologies, such as proteomics, transcriptomics, (a little) genomics, phylogenetics, functional morphology and biotechnological approaches for protein production and engineering. By doing so, I try to answer questions as:
—–

-How are venoms and poisons of neglected animals composed?
-What are the eco-evolutionary frameworks in which they are embedded?
-Are there undescribed toxins?
-What makes a molecule toxic, what are its structural  characters and how does it work?
-How do venomous and poisonous animals evolve and have all of them been described?
-How is the genetic machinery behind toxins evolving?
-How can we use toxins as therapeutics or otherwise?
-How can we optimise Biodiscovery from venomous and poisonous animals?