Dr. Melanie Köhler

Academic Career and Research Areas

Dr. Köhler obtained her PhD in biophysics at the Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria in the group of Prof. Peter Hinterdorfer (Dept. of applied experimental biophysics). After that, at the end of 2016, she moved to the UCLouvain in Belgium, where she worked as postdoctoral researcher in the nanobiophysics lab under the lead of Prof. David Alsteens. There, she explored the molecular mechanisms behind virus binding to cell surface receptors. In 2022, she has received funding from the Leibniz association to establish as an independent junior research group at the LSB.

Dr. Melanie Köhler (b. 1988) is the head of the Junior Research Group Mechanoreceptors at the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich (LSB). Her interdisciplinary research group seeks to combine experimental biophysics (mostly atomic force microscopy) with methods from food chemistry and biology to set up a new experimental research platform for food-related research. Her current work aims at deciphering the molecular basis underlying oral texture perception, i.e. mouthfeel, mediated by mechanoreceptors. 

Awards

• Winner of Nestlé Award for Excellence in Flavor Science at 13th Wartburg Symposium on Flavor Chemistry and Biology (2023)
• Leibniz Junior Research Group grant funded by the Leibniz association and Leibniz LSB within the scope of the Leibniz competition (2022)
• Postdoctoral fellowship funded by Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) Belgium (2020)
• Erwin Schrödinger Abroad Fellowship funded by Austrian Science Fund (FWF), Austria (2017)
• Scholarship grants to support unfinished dissertations (JKU Linz, Austria) (2013-2015)