Birgit Schilling
Buck Institute for Research on Aging
Candidate Statement
By serving on the ASMS Board of Directors, I hope to help advance the knowledge and exchange of scientific ideas for technologies and applications related to mass spectrometry. Specifically, I hope to enhance educational activities for young scientists and early career researchers. For all scientists, I like to encourage topic-focused workshops, user groups, and sharing of technological expertise between scientists, that may even yield formation of collaborative consortia.
Birgit Schilling, M.S./Diploma in chemistry (University of Hamburg, Germany); Ph.D. in chemistry (University of Clausthal, Germany with Professor Dieter Kaufmann); Postdoctoral Fellow (UCSF, San Francisco, CA) with Drs. Al Burlingame and Brad Gibson). Dr. Schilling is currently Associate Professor and Director of the Mass Spectrometry Technology Center at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, in Novato, CA (San Francisco Bay Area) and Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA).
Dr. Schilling uses modern quantitative proteomics technologies, such as data-independent acquisitions (DIA), to investigate mechanisms of aging and diseases. She is interested in translational research that aims towards therapeutic interventions to improve human aging or disease. Her research concerns ‘senescence-derived biomarkers of aging’ with an emphasis on the key roles that the accumulation of senescent cells and, specifically, the secretome and released exosomes play as non-autonomous drivers of aging and age-related diseases. In additional key projects, she investigates the dynamic role of post-translational modifications in metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases, and the remodeling of extracellular matrix in cancer and aging. Technologically, Dr. Schilling has benchmarked quantitative workflows, such as MS1-based, SRM, PRM and DIA methodologies, as part of large international, multi-laboratory studies (e.g., CPTAC and other consortia). Dr. Schilling co-teaches (international) quantitative proteomics courses, including applications of innovative software solutions (Skyline). Her work has resulted in over 125 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters.
Dr. Schilling chaired oral sessions on ‘Protein Quantification’ and ‘Aging’ at ASMS and other conferences. She served as coordinator for the ASMS Interest Group and Workshop on Data-Independent Acquisition and has been an instructor in the ASMS short course on Quantitative Proteomics. In 2021, Dr. Schilling will co-organize the Asilomar Conference on Neurodegenerative Diseases. She participated as an ad hoc reviewer for the ‘Enabling Bioanalytical and Imaging Technologies’ (EBIT) study section (NIH Center for Scientific Review), and currently serves as a standing member of the ‘Neurological Sciences Training’ (NST-2) study section of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Dr. Schilling is also a member of US-HUPO, International HUPO, and Society for Neuroscience. She currently serves on the Editorial Board of Molecular & Cellular Proteomics.