All current CPH Bioscience PhD students, listed by year-group (year they started the programme), and alphabetically by first name within those groups.
Click the year to jump to the year-group:
2020 | 2021 | 2022
| Student | Research Interests |
|---|---|
Annika Charlotte Sell Supervisor: Josh Brickman, reNEW Home Country: Germany Year: 2020 | I consider gene regulation as a universal part of molecular biology. I like how in developmental processes it confers the stability for cells to maintain their identity, and yet it is a dynamic process allowing cells to differentiate in response to a stimulus. I hope to explore this during my PhD. |
Arnau Casòliba Melich Supervisor: Jan Zylicz, reNEW Home Country: Spain Year: 2020 | My research is focused on the effect of metabolism over the epigenetic landscape. Mainly, I study how changes in the metabolic profile of ESCs can affect cell fate decisions during early embryo development. Specifically in the differentiation process from ESCs to trophoblast stem cells, which will form the extraembryonic lineages. |
Caroline Aguilera Supervisor: Mariaceleste Aragona, reNEW Home Country: UK Year: 2020 | My research interests are focused on stem cell biology and regeneration. I am interested in understanding the role of the niche in stem cell behaviour and fate decisions, particularly the role of the extracellular matrix and mechanical signals. Elucidating the mechanisms behind stem cell self-renewal will aid in the development of regenerative therapies. |
Charu Jain Supervisor: Niels Mailand, CPR Home Country: India Year: 2020 | In my master’s, I have used yeast and bacterial system in my research work. During my Ph.D., I would like to work on the mammalian system where I am interested in understanding the genome-wide understanding of the signaling network using molecular biology and microscopy. I would also like to learn and perform some CRISPR screening to have a global overview of the signaling network of cellular proteins. |
Cláudia Gil Supervisor: Christoffer Clemmensen, CBMR Home Country: Portugal Year: 2020 | I am extremely interested in understanding the epigenetic transmission of metabolic diseases. Specifically, I would like to understand how parental choices and lifestyle influence the susceptibility of offspring for developing obesity. My plan is to reveal how these factors affect the feeding behavior regulation in the brain. |
Conchita Fraguas Bringas Supervisor: Kei Sakamoto, CBMR Home Country: Spain Year: 2020 | I’m interested in studying protein-protein interactions and unravelling the mechanisms of their function and role in disease. Particularly, I’m fascinated by cellular protein signalling and phosphoprotein networks, and investigating them through a combination of cell biology and biochemical approaches. |
David Alexei Kouvchinov Supervisor: Thomas Frimurer, CBMR Home Country: USA Year: 2020 | My main interests are medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. In particular, I am focused on the application of a variety of computational tools and approaches towards the design of novel drugs. |
David Tandio Supervisor: Brice Emanuelli, CBMR Home Country: Indonesia Year: 2020 | My current research interest is to explore the benefits provided by a healthy and functioning adipose tissue and its role in maintaining metabolic health. Of particular interest, we aim to understand the energy burning capabilities of brown adipose tissues. Using an omics approach, we hope to discover a novel target/pathway with therapeutic potential against metabolic disorders. |
Emma Elise Hoch-Schneider Supervisor: Michael Krogh Jensen, CFB Home Country: USA Year: 2020 | I am excited about applying synthetic biology tools to food and agricultural technology to solve problems in sustainability. One important tool is the development and application of biosensors–proteins that sense environmental cues and relay measurable outputs. I am interested in designing these sensors and using computational methods and tools to increase their sensitivity and breadth of use. |
Garret William O’Connell Supervisor: Pablo I. Nikel, CFB Home Country: Canada Year: 2020 | Bacterial degradation of environmental pollutants is not a field which intersects with biotechnology often. As for the case of sulfonates, aldehydes are produced which presents and interesting duality between pollutant degradation and potential bio-building blocks. My interests lie primarily at this interface, particularly if the sulfonate is fluorinated. |
Ingrid Tsang Supervisor: Kim Bak Jensen, reNEW Home Country: Hong Kong Year: 2020 | My scientific interest lies in how stem cells and their niche interact in homeostasis and regeneration, particularly how the plasticity of progeny cell identities is regulated. In addition to my scientific pursuits, I am also interested in the epistemic effects of modern biomedical research culture, and how this affects science communication practices. |
Matin Nuhamunada Supervisor: Tilmann Weber, CFB Home Country: Indonesia Year: 2020 | Genome mining of microbial isolates showed more potential Biosynthetic Gene Clusters (BGCs) than the secondary metabolites produced. I am interested in using ecological insight for predicting the driver to activate silent BGCs. Using comparative (meta-)genomics and microbial network associations captured in the microbiome, I hope to find the missing “triggers” left out when we take microorganism from their environment. |
Mikaela Koutrouli Supervisor: Lars Juhl Jensen, CPR Home Country: Greece Year: 2020 | Biologist by training with research experience in immunology and network biology. My research interest is mainly focused on the application of bioinformatics and text mining for the generation of interaction networks to address biological problems and the development of state-of-the-art tools, freely available to the scientific community. |
Ricardo Hernández Medina Supervisor: Simon Rasmussen, CPR Home Country: Mexico Year: 2020 | I am interested in capitalizing on large-scale data from multiple omics sources to obtain actionable insights that inform and advance the field of industrialized biology. To this end, I aim to combine traditional metabolic engineering techniques and mechanistic models with automated workflows and machine learning approaches. |
Sonja Kabatnik Supervisor: Matthias Mann, CPR Home Country: Germany Year: 2020 | What I like about mass spectrometry is the high applicability on diverse biological and clinical samples. Within my PhD project, I will combine high-resolution microscopy with mass spectrometry – a method called ‘Deep Visual Proteomics’. Using only a few specific cell types, cut out by laser, I aim to obtain a fine-resolved picture of the disease-related protein landscape. |
| Student | Research Interests |
|---|---|
Adrian Frey Supervisor: Sheila Ingemann Jensen + Alex Toftgaard Nielsen, CFB Home Country: Switzerland Year: 2021 | My research interests lay in the practical application of biotechnology to produce bulk chemicals in a sustainable way. Especially the possibility to use alternative carbon sources in bacterial fermentation and their implications on upstream and downstream processing fascinate me. |
Ana Gabriela Veiga Sepulchro Supervisor: Morten Nørholm, CFB Home Country: Brazil Year: 2021 | My research interests lie in the development of new knowledge for the implementation of sustainable bio-based industries. To contribute to that big objective my main aim is to generate novels innovative Synthetic Biology tools that can be used towards the standardization and application of methods improving the efficiency of industrial processes, to contribute to the green transition of our society. |
Anastasia Kurzyukova Supervisor: Anja Groth, CPR Home Country: Russia Year: 2021 | Most of the cells in our body share the same genetic material while the way these genes are regulated defines cell identity. I have always been curious about how somatic cells having highly specific function (defined by chromatin landscape) are still able to acquire plasticity e.g., in cancer. During my PhD I aim to unravel the importance of epigenetic inheritance of chromatin states for somatic cell identity. To tackle this question, I will apply advanced genome editing approaches as well as high-resolution sequencing technologies. |
Andrés Jiménez Kaufmann Supervisor: Søren Brunak, CPR Home Country: México Year: 2021 | I’m interested in turning the vast amounts of available data into biological knowledge. In particular, I would like to develop prediction models that can leverage omic data sets and electronic health records to improve disease stratification, diagnosis, and clinical decision-making. |
Deniz Esen Supervisor: Palle Serup, reNEW Home Country: Turkey Year: 2021 | How cells communicate to establish their identity, and coordinate a tissue is fascinating to me. I am interested in a chicken-or-egg question in the pancreas development: Do cells differentiate to find their positions in the mature organ, or are they guided towards their fate with signals from their neighborhood first? |
Elemosho Ridwan Supervisor: Morten Sommer, CFB Home Country: Nigeria Year: 2021 | I am interested in the rational design of high yield cell factories and the building of genetic circuits to program these cell factories to behave in a pre-determined and controllable manner during the biomanufacturing of sustainable chemicals and proteins such as food proteins, biotherapeutics, and enzymes. |
Erica Eberl Supervisor: Ruth Loos, CBMR Home Country: Australia Year: 2021 | I have a broad interest in human nutrition and the interplay between diet and different health and disease states. My current research focuses on the relationship between maternal nutrition and pregnancy outcomes, as well as the physiological mechanisms underlying pregnancy cravings and food aversions. |
Filippo Federici Supervisor: Pablo I. Nikel, CFB Home Country: Italy Year: 2021 | Global warming is one of the main problems of the modern world and its reversion is among the most urgent needs of society. For my PhD, I aim to turn the industrially relevant microorganism Pseudomonas putida into a sustainable cell factory capable of assimilating CO2 and producing a range of commodity chemicals that are currently derived from oil. |
Frederik Post Supervisor: Matthias Mann, CPR Home Country: Germany Year: 2021 | I am fascinated by the elucidation of complex biological questions, especially through the use of proteomics. Recently, deep learning and microdissection enabled the combination of microscopy and mass spectrometry: Deep Visual Proteomics. I use this technology to characterize the heterogeneity of tumors, recurrence, and mechanisms of drug resistance. |
Hannes Elofsson Supervisor: Zach Gerhart-Hines, CBMR Home Country: Sweden Year: 2021 | My main research interests are related to molecular mechanisms in adipose tissue that are important for the maintenance of overall metabolic homeostasis. In particular, I am investigating hormonal signaling pathways involved in the activation/in-activation of thermogenic adipocytes. |
Larissa Thurner Supervisor: Jakub Sedzinski, reNEW Home Country: Germany Year: 2021 | I am interested in understanding in what way tissues are built and how a pool of stem cells coordinates renewal and maintenance throughout life. In my PhD, I would like to combine experimental with computational approaches in order to understand how mechanical and molecular clues, exerted by the extracellular matrix, impact stem cell specification in mucociliary epithelia. |
Mariia Metelova Supervisor: Nils Krietenstein, CPR Home Country: Ukraine Year: 2021 | I am keen on deciphering how genomes are regulated by the 3D conformation of chromosomes. With advances of high-resolution sequencing technologies it became possible to resolve chromatin interactions at the single-nucleosome level. In particular, I would like to focus on the profiling of chromatin organization heterogeneity applying technology development and bioinformatics approaches. |
| Maud Kerstholt Supervisor: Lars Juhl Jensen, CPR Home Country: The Netherlands Year: 2021 | For something so small, a cell is remarkably complex. I’m fascinated by this complexity, which ranges over multiple levels that all interact with each other; from single electrons producing energy in our mitochondria, cells, tissues, and a body. The complexity itself and its components are too much for the human mind to study – or perhaps comprehend. For this reason, I choose data science approaches for methodology. I aim for unravelling a part of the biological complexity and serving the scientific community, so this knowledge can be used for more applicable science. |
Roman Thielemann Supervisor: Torben Hansen, CBMR Co-supervisor: Simon Rasmussen, CPR Home Country: Germany Year: 2021 | I want to use machine learning and data integration on disease-related data to improve prediction, prevention, and treatment on an individual level. In particular, I am interested in type 2 diabetes due to its complexity and importance on a global scale. I hope to look at type 2 diabetes from different angles, including the genome, microbiome, proteome, and clinical perspectives, to get a holistic view of the disease. |
Salim Ibrahim Hanna Supervisor: Thue W. Schwartz, CBMR Home Country: Syria Year: 2021 | Choices have consequences — especially for immune cells. I am interested in “immunometabolism”, which studies how metabolic changes regulate immune cells’ phenotypes and effector functions. Such regulation of function occurs by manipulating the transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms critical for activation. This is most evident in macrophages and likely in other immune cells. |
Victor Klein de Sousa Supervisor: Nicholas Taylor, CPR Home Country: Brazil Year: 2021 | I am interested in studying macromolecular machines using single-particle cryo-electron microscopy, machine learning, molecular dynamics, and other biophysical techniques. In particular, the contractile injection systems (CIS) fascinate me the most. They are present in bacteria and viruses (bacteriophages) and represent a promising “magic bullet” solution for antimicrobial resistance and cancer. |
| Student | Research Interests |
|---|---|
Antar Drews Supervisor: Jan Zylicz, reNEW Home Country: Costa Rica Year: 2022 | The fact that a complete organism can arise from a single cell is astonishing to me. During my PhD, I aim to use synthetic embryology approaches to improve our understanding about cell type specification and functionality during the first week of human development. By generating stem cell-derived blastocyst-like structures in vitro, I hope to uncover molecular details and mechanisms related to human blastocyst development, attachment and implantation. |
Beatriz Teixeira Supervisor: Mariaceleste Aragona, reNEW Home Country: Portugal Year: 2022 | I am very interested in tissue architecture and how different cellular interactions play a role in tissue organization and function. During my Ph.D. project, I would like to explore this topic by improving current tissue culture technologies through the generation of more sophisticated human models and the development of new tools and therapies that could be used to improve patient care. |
Cecilia P. Reyes Supervisor: Palle Serup, reNEW Home Country: Perú Year: 2022 | I am interested in the future of regenerative medicine “stem cell therapies”. Nowadays, diabetes is considered a new pandemic affecting millions of people. In my Ph.D., I would like to center on improving the differentiation protocols of human beta cells from embryonic stem cells. How current knowledge of Notch oscillation can be used to improve beta cell production and cell-based therapies. |
César Cunha Supervisor: Tuomas Kilpelainen, CBMR Home Country: Portugal Year: 2022 | My main research interest revolves around Alzheimer´s Disease. Despite how devastating and prevalent the disease is, there is still no therapeutic avenue in sight for patients. Knowing that obesity and type 2-diabetes are the top modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer´s, my ambition is to use genomics to understand their biological correlation and identify new drug targets and drug repurposing avenues towards establishing preventive treatments as the path to tackle Alzheimer´s. |
Diana Avramets Supervisor: Brice Emanuelli, CBMR Home Country: Ukraine Year: 2022 | The key idea for me in performing research is getting a deeper understanding of the processes that affect our lives daily. So, the most fascinating field of study for this is the metabolism of human organisms. For my PhD project, I am going to investigate the physiology of adipose tissue and shed some light on the interplay between the various cell types that make this tissue’s functions so complex. |
Farina Leonie Schlabs Supervisor: Atul Deshmukh, CBMR Home Country: Germany Year: 2022 | My research interest is in investigating how exercise induces health beneficial adaptions in skeletal muscle. I would like to characterize the role of post-translational modifications in exercise adaptions by making use of the powerful approach of mass spectrometry based proteomics. |
Felipe Mejia Otalvaro Supervisor: Ditte Welner, CFB Home Country: Colombia Year: 2022 | Enzyme technology, in my opinion, is a critical player in the development of sustainable biotechnological processes. Therefore, I’m interested in the discovery and/or engineering of enzymes for their implementation in relevant industrial process using alternate enzymatic reaction media such as seawater and green solvents. |
Foteini Aktypi Supervisor: Simon Rasmussen, CPR Home Country: Greece Year: 2022 | My interests revolve around exploring new ways to analyze large scale proteomics data more efficiently and meaningfully. I aim to provide solutions to the scientific community for the accurate interpretation of mass spectrometry based proteomics data which can be used to more precisely characterize disease states, find biomarkers and identify drug targets. |
Giusi Favoino Supervisor: Pablo I. Nikel, CFB Home Country: Italy Year: 2022 | My primary interest is to be part of a research aimed at preserving the planet and limiting its exploitation, which I consider to be the fundamental goal to achieve in the present time. Specifically, my project is focused on engineering environmental bacteria in order to produce molecules of interest through synthetic metabolisms that enable CO2 assimilation. |
Jacopo Munaretto Supervisor: Melissa Little, reNEW Home Country: Italy Year: 2022 | Organoid technologies are a versatile tool for research and clinical applications. My interest lies in the characterisation of kidney organoids, in particular in the intrinsic mechanisms that generate the variety of cell types observed in the current protocols. I would like to analyse the factors involved combining advanced microscopy and omics profiling. |
Louise Morlot Supervisor: Niels Mailand, CPR Home Country: France Year: 2022 | I am interested in understanding mechanisms of cellular stress responses and exploring pathways involved in the maintenance of genome integrity. During my PhD I aim to develop targeted approaches combining cell biology and high resolution omics technologies to study DNA repair mechanisms and the consequences of damages such as DNA-protein crosslinks. |
Marc Pielies Avellí Supervisor: Simon Rasmussen, CPR Home Country: Spain Year: 2022 | My primary research goal is to develop state-of-the-art machine learning models, aiming to solve complex problems in biology. During my PhD I will work on data integration for several medical conditions. I will mainly focus on the study of genetic variants and their functional impact on certain diseases. |
Maxence Holtz Supervisor: Michael Krogh Jensen, CFB Home Country: France Year: 2022 | My research interest lies in the combination of enzyme and metabolic engineering to build efficient microbial cell factories. I am particularly interested in harnessing evolution-based methods and high-throughput technologies to speed-up the construction and selection of the best-performing strains. Using yeast as a chassis, I am focusing on the sustainable production of high-value pharmaceuticals. |
Nicole Rutbeek Supervisor: Nicholas Taylor, CPR Home Country: Canada Year: 2022 | My research interests involve understanding host-pathogen relationships and in particular the interactions between bacteria and phage. Through the use of cryo-EM, as well as other structural and biochemical techniques, I aim to characterize mechanisms used by bacteria to protect against phage infection. |
Ricardo Tenente Supervisor: Thomas Frimurer, CBMR Home Country: Portugal Year: 2022 | Protein structures can provide useful insights into their biological function. I aim to understand the molecular mechanisms of action of metabolite sensing GPCRs upon interaction with natural ligands and novel designed drugs, via Molecular Dynamics simulations with AI-derived GPCR structures and further validated with wet-lab techniques. |
Sidak Minocha Supervisor: Julien Duxin, CPR Home Country: India Year: 2022 | I am intrigued by how cells replicate, regulate, and maintain their DNA. I am interested in studying how DNA protein crosslinks (DPCs) damage the DNA and how they are repaired. Cancer therapeutics heavily rely on chemicals that form DPCs and understanding their repair pathways would provide important insights into the disease and chemoresistance. |
Stijn Kral Supervisor: Alex Toftgaard Nielsen, CFB Home Country: The Netherlands Year: 2022 | Biotechnology for real sustainable solutions inspires me. In my research I work on the use of thermophilic bacteria for biobased chemical production. With metabolic engineering, tool development, modelling, and fermentation we aim to construct strains that are not only interesting for academic research, but that can be applied in industry. |