Overview

Prof. Rychlik’s group has been working for 15 years in the field of developing analytical methods for bioactive food components, in particular for vitamins, mycotoxins, odorants and lipids. For these compounds, he developed stable isotope dilution assays that reveal superior accuracy. Moreover, his research is focused on the application of these methods to recent areas in food chemistry, technology, toxicology and nutrition.

Researcher biography

Michael Rychlik graduated in food chemistry at the University of Kaiserslautern in 1988. His PhD studies on the flavour of bread were completed in 1996 and he was appointed full professor at the TUM in 2010. In 2015 he served as a Visiting Professor at the University of Queensland (UQ), Australia and in 2016 he was appointed an Honorary Professor at the latter University. In 2016 he was also active as a Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
Prof. Michael Rychlik now is the Head of the Chair of Analytical Food Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich, Germany (TUM).

Qualifications

  • State examination in Food Chemistry, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany
  • Doctor of Philosophy, Technical University of Munich
  • Grant of docentship in Food Chemistry (Habilitation), Technical University of Munich

Current grants

  • Project: Development of Stable Isotope Dilution Assays for Vitamins of the Pyridoxine Group in Foods, (2015 - 2017) German Research Foundation
  • Project: Progressing towards the construction of METROFOOD-RI, (2017) EU Horizon 2020 INFRADEV (Development and long-term sustainability of new pan-European research infrastructures)

Supervision

  • Analysis and bioavailability of beneficial compounds in exotic foods or foods grown in tropical regions
    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor
  • Development of Stable Isotope Dilution Assays for Vitamins of the Pyridoxine Group in Foods
    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor
  • Development of a multi-method for water-soluble vitamins in foods
    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor
  • Development of a multi-method for Fusarium toxins in foods
    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor
  • Development of a multi-method for Alternaria toxins in foods
    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

Available research projects

Nutritional assessment of exotic tropical foods with emphasis on the vitamin group of folates

The role of specific vitamins such as folate, in human health and well-being has been a major research topic in the last decade. Natural biofortified produce (via selective breeding) and non-mainstream tropical exotic fruit are becoming a popular target of health-conscious consumers in Australia, Germany and other Western countries. Queensland (QLD) has a rich and diverse flora of tropical exotic fruits with unknown composition, and is also the epicentre of several breeding programs to biofortify produce. The objectives of the proposed project are to assess the vitamin and particularly the folate content in a variety of tropical produce cultivated in Queensland as affected by breeding, agricultural conditions, and storage.

Influence of Fusarium contamination on quality aspects of brewing cereals

Contamination with Fusarium species represents a rising threat to yield quantity and quality, especially for brewing barley. High contamination bears the risk of mycotoxins and decrease in quality. Several mold-causal fungi are producers of potent mycotoxins that are harmful to human health. Currently there is no data available on the relationship of contamination, visual evaluation of barley and malt, quality specifications and mycotoxins. In this project different samples of barley and the corresponding malts are analyzed to recognize correlations. Moreover, the grains and malts are assessed mycologically for fungal contamination and screened for Fusarium toxins by LC-MS/MS.

Publications

Book
Rychlik M (Editor, 2011) Fortified foods with vitamins: Analytical concepts to assure better and safer products, Wiley-VCH publishers, 1st edition, ISBN-10: 352733078X

Original research

Rychlik M, Schieberle P (1999) Quantification of the mycotoxin patulin by a stable isotope dilution assay. J. Agric. Food Chem., 47: 3749-3755

Freisleben A, Schieberle P, Rychlik M (2003) Specific and Sensitive Quantification of Folate Vitamers in Foods by Stable Isotope Dilution Assays, Anal. Bioanal. Chem., 376: 149-156

Lindenmeier M, Schieberle P, Rychlik M (2004) Quantitation of Ochratoxin A in Foods by a Stable Isotope Dilution Assay Using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry, J. Chromatogr. A, 1023: 57-66

Schrøder M, Kroghsbo S, Poulsen M, Wilcks A, Miller A, Frenzel T, Danier J, Rychlik M, Emami K, Gatehouse A, Shu Q, Engel K-H, Altosaar I, Knudsen I (2007) A 90-day safety study of genetically modified rice expressing Cry1Ab protein (Bacillus thuringiensis toxin) in Wistar rats, Food Chem. Tox., 45: 339-349,

Cervino C, Asam S, Knopp D, Niessner R, Rychlik M (2008) Isotopically Labeled Aflatoxins for LC-MS/MS Stable Isotope Dilution Analysis of Foods, J. Agric. Food Chem., 56(6), 1873-1879

Rychlik M, Asam S (2008) Stable isotope dilution assays in mycotoxin analysis, Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 390: 617-628

Rychlik M, Humpf H-U, Marko D, Dänicke S, Mally A, Berthiller F, Klaffke H, Lorenz N (2014) Proposal of a comprehensive definition of modified and other forms of mycotoxins including “masked” mycotoxins, Mycotoxin Research, 30: 197-205, open access, DOI 10.1007/s12550-014-0203-5

Mönch S, Netzel M, Netzel G, Ott U, Frank T, Rychlik M (2015) Folate Bioavailability from Foods Rich in Folates Assessed in a Short Term Human Study Using Stable Isotope Dilution Assays, Food & Function, 6: 241 - 247

Habler K, Frank O, Rychlik M (2016) Chemical Synthesis of Deoxynivalenol-3-β-D-[13C6]-Glucoside and Application in Stable Isotope 
Dilution Assays, Molecules, 21: 838