Since 2022, the International Doctorate Program “The Proteomes That Feed the World” has been training PhD-students at TUM. As part of the application for a further four-year funding period in the Elite Network of Bavaria, three doctoral students presented their individual research projects in the fields of bioinformatics, proteomics, and plant biology on 13 October 2025.
The doctorate program’s mission is to explore the vast and complex world of plant proteins from the 100 most important crops for human nutrition and to create a comprehensive Crop Proteome Atlas. Furthermore this program aims to train future leaders in science, industry and society. In addition to the high-ranking panel of experts and representatives from the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts, numerous members of the growing, interdisciplinary community of outstanding scientists participating in the program also came to the Beverage Science Center in Freising for the on-site evaluation. In addition to the three short presentations, other doctoral students from the “The Proteomes that Feed the World” doctorate program took the opportunity to provide interesting insights into their work in the form of poster presentations.
Qussai Abbas developed GAP-MS (Gene Model Assessment with Peptides from Mass Spectrometry), a pipeline using over 1.5 million protein records to verify genes with direct peptide evidence. By combining alignment algorithms and machine learning, it filtered errors (boosting precision ~10%) and confirmed 35,000 new proteins across 20 crops - advancing accurate, reliable crop genome maps for global food security.
Genc Haljiti uses advanced mass spectrometry to map naturally occurring peptides in leaves and the apoplast - the frontline of plant defense. He identified over 26,000 unique peptides, including defensin like and hormone related ones that shift during stress. These findings reveal how plants dynamically reshape their peptide networks to sense stress, trigger immunity, and maintain resilient.
Sophia Hein studies how barley defends itself against fungal pathogens like Fusarium, which cause grain damage and the production of harmful toxins. Using omics tools - proteomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics - she uncovers key defense pathways during infection. Her research reveals that Phenylalanine- or Tryptophan-derived such as serotonin and hordatines fortify barley’s cell walls, paving the way for more resilient crops.
