Copenhagen Bioscience PhD Programme

Fully-funded four year PhD programme in an international scientific environment

Supervisors

These potential supervisors are offering projects for students starting in 2022.

The research topics listed below give an idea of the research in each supervisor’s lab. Follow the links to their lab webpages and read their publications to find out more.

The following supervisors are also part of CPH Bioscience PhD but are not offering long-term projects for students starting in 2022: Jiri Lukas, Guillermo Montoya, Matthias Mann, Romain Barres, Christoffer Clemmensen, Zach Gerhart-Hines, Thomas Moritz, Thue W. Schwartz, Tune H. Pers, Camilla Charlotte Scheele, Søren Brunak, Torben Hansen, Lars Juhl Jensen, Agnete Kirkeby.

Applicants to CPH Bioscience PhD must explain their research interests in their application, but are not committed to any particular group until after joining the programme.

New pre-doc students must complete three short rotation projects in different labs, then make an agreement with one of their rotation supervisors to host their long-term (PhD) project. The ultimate PhD project is developed in collaboration between the supervisor and student, according to their mutual interests.

Each student applies to and is initially recruited by one of the Centers. However, it is possible to do rotation projects at other Centers; and students may apply to change Center after completing their rotation projects.

CPR  |  CBMR | CFB  |  reNEW


NNF Center for Protein Research (CPR)

Understanding the epigenetic regulation of cell-type-specific transcription regulation. Supervisor: Chuna Choudhary. Additional potential supervisors in the group include Drs. Takeo Narita, Yoshiki Higashijima, and Sinan Kilic.

How are DNA lesions induced by chemotherapeutics recognized and removed from the genome? Using frog egg extracts, we hope to define the principles that target DNA-protein crosslinks to degradation. Supervisor: Julien Duxin

Anja GrothRoles of chromatin replication in genome and epigenome maintenance

Nils Krietenstein – Structure and function of chromatin fibers

Eva Kummer – Genome maintenance and gene expression in mammalian mitochondria

Niels MailandUnderstanding cellular signaling processes using genome-scale CRISPR screening

Michael Lund NielsenCharacterizing post-translational modifications by quantitative proteomics

Jakob Nilsson – Protein phosphatases – understanding fundamental principles of substrate specificity and regulation of cellular signaling pathways

Jesper V. OlsenGlobal analysis of disease signaling pathways by quantitative phosphoproteomics

Simon RasmussenDeep learning for human genome, proteome and microbiome variation in health and disease

Nicholas Taylor – Revealing the mechanisms of biomolecular machines by cryo-electron microscopy, molecular biology and bioinformatics


NNF Center for Basic Metabolic Research (CBMR)

Ken Arnold(1) History of museums; (2) Relation of arts & sciences; (3) Public and stakeholder engagement with medicine & sciences; (4) Diagnosis and disease categories in the lab and the clinic (with Karin Tybjerg); (5) creative enquiries into research culture

Manimozhiyan ArumugamDiscovering gut microbial metabolites modulating host metabolism using microbiome systems biology

Adam Bencard(1) Cultural, philosophical and historical contexts for metabolic science, and personalized medicine (with Karin Tybjerg); (2) complex meetings between science and the public; (3) Metabolism and art

Atul DeshmukhProtein dynamics in response to diet and physical exercise using mass spectrometry-based proteomics

Brice Emanuelli – Inter and intracellular cross-talks orchestrating adipose functions and systemic metabolism

Thomas FrimurerMolecular modeling and structure-based drug design

Jens Juul Holst – Perfused organs for secretion/actions studies of pancreatic and gut hormones; Optimization of hormone assays; Liver-alpha cell axis in metabolism

Tuomas Kilpeläinen – In the adipose tissue: Uncovering mechanisms of metabolic disease by connecting genetic associations to function

Ruth LoosPrecision health in obesity using a multi-omics approach

Kei SakamotoUncovering molecular and cellular signaling mechanisms that control metabolic functions

Jonas Thue Treebak – Defining the role of NAD+ generating/consuming pathways for maintaining metabolic health and tissue function

Louise Whiteley – (1) Media representations of metabolic research; (2) Cultural perspectives on mind-gut-microbiome connections; (3) The role of communication in interdisciplinary research cultures


NNF Center for Biosustainability (CFB)

Irina Borodina – High-throughput metabolic engineering: methods and applications

We use the theory of evolution and synthetic biology to harvest and engineer nature’s chemical repertoire. Supervisor: Pablo Cruz-Morales

Joshua EvansCreation of novel fermented foods for flavour & sustainability; Ecology, evolution, & metabolomics of novel fermentations; Social science of human–microbe relationships in fermentation

Synthetic Biology Tools for Yeast – Supervisor: Michael Krogh Jensen – Engineering yeast for sustainable solutions in industrial biotechnology, environmental engineering and health. Developing new sensory systems. Manufacturing therapeutic plant natural products in yeast cell factories.

Bacterial Signal Transduction – Supervisor: Carsten JersProteomics, genetics and biochemistry for elucidating the role of post-translational modifications (phosphorylation, acetylation) in bacterial physiology

Bacterial Cell Factories. Production of bulk and fine biochemicals using bacterial cell factories. Possible supervisors: Alex Toftgaard Nielsen, Sheila Ingemann Jensen

Lars Keld NielsenDigital Biology and the Modern Biofoundry

Pablo I. NikelEngineering environmental bacteria for new-to-Nature C1, C2 and C3 metabolism

Genome Engineering Group – Topics: Synthetic biology, gene regulation, protein production, genome engineering and experimental evolution – Supervisor: Morten Nørholm

Bacterial Synthetic Biology – Supervisor: Morten SommerResearch Areas: Microbial foods, Advanced Microbiome Therapeutics, Population heterogeneity in large scale fermentations.

Sustainable Innovation Office – Supervisor: Sumesh SukumaraQuantifying economic and environmental sustainability performance of bio-based solutions

Tilmann Weber, Pep CharusantiNext generation genome mining for antibiotics and other specialized metabolites. Kai BlinAlgorithms and software engineering for genome mining

Ditte Hededam WelnerEnzyme engineering and structural biology for industrial biocatalysis


NNF Center for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW)

Mariaceleste AragonaTissue architecture: addressing stem cell dynamics in epithelia

Joshua BrickmanIntegrating signalling with transcription to control stem cell potency and differentiation – transitions in and out of totipotency, pluripotency and lineage restricted self-renewal.

Kim Bak JensenAdvancing intestinal organoid technology toward regenerative medicine

Melissa LittleKidney morphogenesis using pluripotent stem cells

Jakub SedzinskiHow to build a tissue? Combining cell biology, biophysics, engineering and systems biology approaches to understand development and regeneration of respiratory epithelium in health and disease

Palle SerupControl of cell fate in fetal pancreas and organoids by oscillating Notch signalling

Jan ZyliczEpigenetic and metabolic regulation of early development