Christoph Magnes
Analytical chemist at Joanneum Research whose group contributed the mass-spectrometry measurements of polyamines in the Graz spermidine studies
Head of the Bioanalytics and Metabolomics research group, HEALTH – Institute for Biomedicine and Health Sciences, Joanneum Research, Graz · At Joanneum Research since 2003 · Doctorate in natural sciences (Mag. Dr. rer. nat.)
Bioanalytics and Metabolomics, HEALTH – Institute for Biomedicine and Health Sciences, Joanneum Research (Graz, Austria) ↗ ORCID0000-0002-5153-7444 ↗
Portrait: Joanneum Research
Magnes is not a cell biologist and does not run aging experiments. He heads a bioanalytics and metabolomics group at Joanneum Research, an applied research company in Graz that works to Good Laboratory Practice standards, and his job in both spermidine papers is measurement. The 2009 paper states plainly in its author-contribution note that he and Frank Sinner performed the polyamine measurements by mass spectrometry; the 2016 paper's methods describe a quantitative HPLC-MS/MS determination of ornithine, putrescine, spermidine and spermine in plasma, whole blood and heart tissue, run by his Joanneum team.
That role is easy to underrate and hard to replace. Spermidine is a small, chemically unremarkable molecule that is already present in every cell, so the whole claim of these papers depends on being able to say how much of it is in a sample, to a level that separates it cleanly from its close relatives putrescine and spermine. Liquid chromatography separates the molecules, the mass spectrometer weighs the fragments, and a spiked internal standard turns the signal into an actual concentration.
Without those numbers the 2016 mouse result would be a story about mice that drank something and lived longer. With them the paper can show that circulating spermidine actually rose after feeding, that ornithine fell, and that the arginine-to-ornithine balance shifted in a direction linked to blood pressure. His group also supplied the polyamine measurements for the 2021 Graz work on spermidine and cognition.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | A | Induction of autophagy by spermidine promotes longevity EIS2009 Credited in the author-contribution statement, together with Frank Sinner, with performing the polyamine measurements by mass spectrometry. |
| 2016 | A | Cardioprotection and lifespan extension by the natural polyamine spermidine EIS2016 His Joanneum Research bioanalytics group ran the quantitative HPLC-MS/MS determination of ornithine, putrescine, spermidine and spermine in plasma, whole blood and cardiac tissue. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 20
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Christoph Magnes.
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- Didac Carmona-Gutierrez 2 shared studies Studies how cell death and autophagy shape ageing at the University of Graz, and contributed to the studies showing that spermidine extends lifespan through autophagy
- Frank Madeo 2 shared studies Established spermidine as a dietary compound that extends lifespan in yeast, worms, flies and mice, and showed that the effect depends on autophagy
- Christoph Ruckenstuhl 2 shared studies Yeast geneticist who works out how amino-acid restriction and vacuole acidity set lifespan
- Sabrina Büttner 2 shared studies Studies how organelles communicate inside cells and how that communication breaks down with age, and contributed to the Graz studies showing that spermidine extends lifespan by inducing autophagy
- Sabrina Schroeder 2 shared studies Researcher in Frank Madeo's group at Graz who has contributed to the spermidine studies from the first yeast longevity experiments to work in mice
- Tobias Eisenberg 2 shared studies Showed as first author that the dietary polyamine spermidine extends lifespan by inducing autophagy, and later that it protects the heart in an autophagy-dependent way
- Birgit Rathkolb Scientist at the German Mouse Clinic of Helmholtz Munich and the Gene Center of LMU Munich who contributes to the clinic's phenotyping of mouse models
- Frauke Neff First author of the study that separated what rapamycin does to lifespan from what it does to ageing itself
- Guido Kroemer Cell biologist known for work on programmed cell death, mitochondria and autophagy, and for linking autophagy to ageing and cancer immunity.
- Helmut Fuchs Scientific and technical head of the German Mouse Clinic at Helmholtz Munich, the standardised many-organ testing platform for mouse models that Fuchs helped build
- Jan Rozman Scientist who worked at the German Mouse Clinic of Helmholtz Munich on the standardised phenotyping of mouse models
- Johannes Beckers Geneticist at Helmholtz Munich and the Technical University of Munich whose group at the Institute of Experimental Genetics runs gene-expression profiling for the German Mouse Clinic
- Jörn Dengjel Mass-spectrometry proteomics specialist in autophagy and protein homeostasis; co-author on the TBK1/ULK1–TFEB lysosomal stress pathway and on the spermidine lifespan and cardioprotection study.
- Junichi Sadoshima Studies how mTOR, autophagy and mitophagy protect the heart under stress and in ageing, and contributed to the finding that spermidine protects the heart
- Kristin Moreth Scientist at the German Mouse Clinic of Helmholtz Munich who contributed to its phenotyping of mouse models, including heart measurements
- Luca Scorrano Mitochondrial biologist known for showing how the shape of mitochondria and their inner folds (cristae) control energy production and cell death.
- Marion Horsch Scientist at the Institute of Experimental Genetics, Helmholtz Munich, who has worked with Johannes Beckers on gene-expression studies of mouse models for the German Mouse Clinic
- Martin Hrabě de Angelis Mouse geneticist who directs large-scale phenotyping of mouse mutants and the German Mouse Clinic, a platform that tests how genes affect health and disease.
- Nektarios Tavernarakis Geneticist who uses the roundworm C. elegans to study how ageing, neurodegeneration, necrotic cell death, autophagy and protein turnover are controlled
- Valérie Gailus-Durner Biochemist who co-founded the German Mouse Clinic at Helmholtz Munich and leads it as scientific head, running standardised testing of mouse models across many organ systems
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