Albert Heck, PhD

Professor of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Utrecht University

Speaker

Albert Heck (Utrecht University) is an expert in protein mass spectrometry, a technology he applies to problems in proteomics and structural biology. The Heck laboratory established a track record in quantitative proteomics, and even more prominently, in the analysis of protein post-translational modifications, e.g. phosphorylation and glycosylation. Heck applied these techniques to study e.g. host-pathogen interactions and stem cell differentiation. Heck is also a leading scientist in native mass spectrometry and cross-linking mass spectrometry, that empower the structural analysis of protein assemblies. The Heck group develops mass analyzers dedicated for this work and uses these to study the structure and dynamics of among other antibodies, immune complexes and viruses. Heck received numerous awards, notably the Gold Medal of the Dutch Royal Chemical Society (2001), The HUPO Discovery Award in Proteomic Sciences (2013), The Spinoza Award of the Dutch Research Council (2017), The Thomson Award of the IMSC (2018), the Krebs Medal of FEBS (2018) and the Mendel Medal (2024). Heck has also been elected into the Dutch Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts and is member of EMBO.