Daniel Petras, an assistant professor of biochemistry at UC Riverside, has been awarded the Mattauch Herzog Award from the German Association for Mass Spectrometry, or DGMS. Petras received the award, one of the most prestigious scientific awards in analytical sciences in Europe, for his work on developing functional metabolomics tools.

Metabolomics is the study of small molecules found within cells, biofluids, tissues, and entire ecosystems. Functional metabolomics aims to understand the roles of metabolites in biological processes, such as the inhibition of specific enzymes. 

“Since I was a student, I have deeply admired the pioneering work of the DGMS community, and, especially, the former Mattauch-Herzog Award awardees,” Petras said. “I am incredibly humbled to receive this honor and to be named alongside many of my heroes in the field. More importantly, this recognition reflects the hard work and dedication of my group and our collaboration partners, as we continue to develop new tools to explore how small molecules shape biological processes.”

Petras received his master’s degree in biotechnology from the University of Applied Science Darmstadt and his doctoral degree in biochemistry from the Technical University Berlin. He did postdoctoral research at UC San Diego, where he focused on the development of large-scale environmental metabolomics methods. In January 2024 he joined UCR, where his lab focuses on the development and application of mass spectrometry-based methods to visualize and assess chemical exchange within microbial communities.

Besides Petras, David Clases, an associate professor of chemistry at the University of Graz in Austria, received the Mattauch-Herzog Award this year.