Dr. Klein earned his Diplom in Physics (equivalent to an MSc) at the University of Regensburg, Germany, and pursued his PhD in the field of Metabolomics at the same institution. During his studies, he discovered small molecule biomarkers predicting the onset of human liver and kidney diseases as well as ketosis in dairy cows. Dr. Klein held Postdoctoral positions at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Germany, and the University of Calgary, Canada, where his focus turned toward microbial metabolism and microbiome-host interactions. In September 2017, Dr. Klein joined The Ohio State University’s Department of Food Science and Technology as an Assistant Professor within the Foods for Health Discovery Theme.
Dr. Klein is employing state-of-the-art technologies such as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) for the analysis of small molecule metabolites. Data from these platforms is analyzed using high-dimensional computational and statistical approaches employing software such as R and Matlab. Goals of this research are furthering the understanding of disease development and progression as well as the discovery of predictive disease biomarkers. Dr. Klein’s current research deals with the detection and identification of pathogenic microbes as well as metabolomics analyses on maternal health.