Forskningsområde
Almost every chemical reaction that can generate energy is exploited by microbes to sustain their growth and survival. My research focuses on environmentally important microbial key players, the chemical reactions they perform, and how by that they drive the world’s element cycles.
I am especially interested in anaerobic microbial metabolism with a focus on the nitrogen cycle and its interlinkage with other element cycles. I have a special interest in new so far undiscovered energy generating pathways in microbes.
Furthermore, I am interested in microbial population dynamics and interactions and mechanisms that govern the coexistence of multiple species. I aim to understand how microbial communities establish, function and change and what the driving forces are.
Nøgleord
- Mikrobiel økofysiologi
- Mikrobiel populationsdynamik
- Kvælstofkredsløb
Eksempler på tidligere bachelor- og specialeprojekter
- Factors controlling the activity of nitrifying microbes (2019; co-supervised)
- Does the manipulation of the human microbiome help with curing diseases? (2018; co-supervised)
- Aerobic denitrifying bacteria associated with North Atlantic copepods (2017)
Ideer til kommende bachelor- og specialeprojekter
A new microbial oxygen production pathway
I recently discovered a new oxygen production pathway that does not require light in an abundant group of marine microbes.
Many questions about this new pathway remain to be answered opening various possibilities for student projects:
- What is the occurrence and distribution of this pathway in the environment?
- What is the exact biochemistry of the pathway?
Competition at redox interfaces
Traditionally, we expect that the occurrence of microbial pathways is strictly sorted according to the redox tower e.g oxygen is respired fist, once consumed anaerobic processes like denitrification set in.
However, this is not necessarily the case and microbes performing denitrification in fully oxygenated environments exist.
Potential projects could focus on questions like the following:
- When do pure cultures of microbes isolated from a set of different environments switch from one pathway to another when both pathways are energetically feasible (e.g. from oxygen respiration to denitrification or from denitrification to sulfate reduction)?
- Is this different in complex microbial communities with a complex network of competition and collaboration?
Hunting for yet undiscovered microbial pathways
Identifying a chemical reaction (=potential metabolic pathway), which theoretically provides enough energy for microbes to live on, and then systematically searching for microbes capable of performing it in nature has proven to be a very successful approach. For example, it led to the discovery of anammox, which nowadays is a crucial component in a lot of wastewater treatment plants.
Quite a few proposed metabolic pathways remain to be discovered. A few pathways in the nitrogen cycle have been theoretically proposed but have not been discovered in nature so far. This project idea takes you on a treasure hunt to start looking for one of these pathways.
It is of course always possible to discuss your own ideas and interests. Thus, please get in contact if you are generally interested in a project in microbial ecophysiology.