KATHARINA SCHERF

Prof. Dr. Katharina Scherf leads the Department of Bioactive and Functional Food Chemistry at the Institute of Applied Biosciences, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany. Together with her team, she studies the complex interplay between structure, functionality and bioactivity of food biopolymers and uses these fundamental insights to improve food security, quality and safety. One of her main interests are analytical, immunological and biochemical aspects of celiac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity and wheat allergy. Having studied food chemistry, Katharina Scherf obtained her PhD degree from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and was a research group leader at the Leibniz-Institute for Food Systems Biology at the TUM. Her research was awarded with several prestigious scientific prizes, including the Research Award of the German Coeliac Society (2019 and 2014), the Young Scientist Research Award of the Cereals & Grains Association (2018) and the Harald Perten Prize (2022). In 2022, she received the ERC Starting Grant GLUTENOMICS to elucidate the molecular structures of gluten immunogenic peptides from the grain to the gut and beyond.”