Gunda Köllensperger is a professor in analytical chemistry at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna, Austria. Her current research interests focus on elemental speciation analysis and the combined use of elemental and molecular mass spectrometry in biology and biomedicine. She is particularly involved in the development of elemental proteomic work flows and their integration in preclinical studies of experimental drugs, strategies for in vivoquantification of biomolecules and the application of ICP-MS approaches in the biotechnological production of metalloproteins/proteins.

You are a member of the editorial board of JAAS, which this year celebrates its 25th anniversary, did you want you be a scientist 25 years ago? 

25 year ago I was a teenager growing up in a village where the usual academic professions were medical doctors, teachers or pharmacists, not research scientists. I learned about the periodic table for the first time when I was 12 and I was the only child in the classroom who liked it! That was my first contact with chemistry, but I wouldn't say that at that time I had the feeling I would become a scientist, but I certainly wasn't scared of chemistry which was a good start! 

One of your research interests is the application of mass spectrometry to biology and biomedicine; can you explain your goals in this research? 

Having been to many bioinorganic conferences, including one whole conference about metals in biology and biomedicine without a single lecture about methodology, I think there is big potential in what we can do for biology and biomedicine. I would like to help introduce mass spectrometry to these communities as I think there could be very good contributions from our field. One particular area is metallodrugs. The scientific community is learning more and more about how metallodrugs are involved in biochemical pathways, but they rarely look at the inorganic chemistry of the drug inside the cell because they are not aware of methodologies that could be developed for this. This means that a lot of the hypotheses on how metallodrugs work are based on studies in vitro, in very simplified physiological solutions, and these studies get extrapolated to very complex biological systems. What we are finding at the moment is that a lot of these hypothetical assumptions on how the drug works or what the intracellular chemistry of the drugs is are different from the in vitro studies. As one of my goals I would really like to contribute in developing these methods. 

How is analytical chemistry evolving? 

Analytical chemistry is moving more towards applications. The task of the analytical chemist is to design experiments in collaboration with people in biology or medicine, as they are can advise them on what can be measured. But there is also a problem that sometimes the measurement method you have doesn't really address or answers the questions of the biologists and you have to convince people to use it!

You work in a very interdisciplinary field, does that motivate you? 

That is what I really like about my job. I am a chemist working at a biotechnology faculty, and the biochemists and chemists learn from each other. This interaction is an enriching experience and I am really happy to be in such a lively atmosphere. Working in analytical chemistry you always try to figure out what the problems of your collaborators are and what could be done for them by creating and developing new methods. 

In your work you use ICP-MS, this year is the 30th anniversary of the publication of the first ICP-MS paper, what has been the impact of this technique in mass spectrometry? 

ICP-MS has had a huge impact in atomic spectroscopy and elemental trace analysis, but not so much for the organic mass spectrometry community. The technique has great potential in bioanalysis but this community has to be convinced by experiments and applications, not only by fundamental developments. 

What do you enjoy most about working with students? 

The work with the PhD students is the most important thing I do, they are the people I rely on to do the experiments. I enjoy working with students when they are very critical but not too much that they get stuck! I like to see them recognise good ideas and be eager to discuss, challenge and even argue with me. I still do experiment in the lab as well. I think this is very important, otherwise you are too far away from your students and what they do and go through. 

What inspires you? 

I have my best ideas talking to people, listening to what their problem is and going back to my lab and thinking about the best way to address it.although it is normally more difficult than you first thought! 

If you weren't a scientist, what would you be? 

I would like to write crime fiction. The classic 'whodunnit?' was always enthralling for me.