Eight researchers from DTU receive a total of approx. DKK 21 million to experiment with ground-breaking ideas. The postdoc funding goes to research in the category ‘Technology and Production Sciences’.
The Danish Council for Independent Research is investing DKK 138 million in ambitious postdoc projects to help stimulate the ‘growth layer’ in Danish research. Among the recipients are eight DTU researchers who will receive a total of approx. DKK 21 million in the category ‘Technology and Production Sciences’. The projects are a pronounced international research collaboration which helps stimulate research environments.
In total, the Danish Council for Independent Research has awarded DKK 138 million to a total of 67 researchers within all academic fields. The funding gives the researchers roughly two years during which they can further develop their research skills and find the answers to the scientific questions they are eager to explore.
Funding makes Denmark smarter
In a press release from the Danish Council for Independent Research, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Council, Peter Munk Christiansen, says that the grants will make Denmark smarter:
“One of the core activities of the Danish Council for Independent Research is to spot the brightest research talents, and postdoctoral grants are an important instrument in this respect. They are an essential contribution to ensuring a growth layer in Danish research, so that we can continue to have a solid basis for generating groundbreaking research results. Another means to ensure this is international cooperation, and it is therefore positive that all the recipients have an international set-up.”
Project title: ‘Cochlear implant channel selection errors’
Grant recipient: Abigail Kressner
Place of employment: Technical University of Denmark
Awarded amount: DKK 1,809,464
Project description: Cochlear implants (CIs) help deaf and strongly hearing-impaired people by stimulating the auditory nerve directly through a series of electrodes implanted along the basilar membrane in the inner ear. This project will systematically examine errors during the channel selection process to assist the development of CIs and thereby improve speech understanding for CI users.
Project title: ‘Glycosyltransferases vs. reverse glycosylation for HMO synthesis’
Grant recipient: Birgitte Zeuner
Place of employment: Technical University of Denmark
Awarded amount: DKK 1,710,484
Project description: Breast milk contains a number of unique carbohydrates referred to as human milk oligosaccharides that are decisive for the health and development of newborns. The purpose of the project is to investigate what is best: Changing the glycosyltransferases so they do not need a nucleotide-activated substrate, or developing glycosidases that are better at catalysing transglycosylation which is the opposite reaction of their ‘naturally’ catalysing hydrolysis?
Project title: ‘Development of new metal oxide/noble metal hybrids as plasmonic bi-functional nanocatalysts for solar energy’
Grant recipient: Christian Engelbrekt
Place of employment: Technical University of Denmark
Awarded amount: DKK 3,471,711
Project description: Major international challenges from global warming and dwindling conventional fossil fuel reserves encourage industrial conversion to green technologies. The project will produce and study 3-component systems, incorporating additional catalytically active metal.
Project title: ‘Constructive delivery of cancer chemotherapeutics using virus-like liposomes’
Grant recipient: Jannik Bruun Larsen
Place of employment: Technical University of Denmark
Awarded amount: DKK 3,078,924
Project description: Every year, more than 12 million people are diagnosed with cancer worldwide and more than 7.5 million people die from cancer. Chemotherapy is still the most used treatment, but it involves extensive side effects. In this project, we will use biophysical techniques to map the difference in properties between the individual carrier systems, and we will use advanced microscopy techniques to examine the release and location of the drug within cancer cells.
Project title: ‘Production of Substitute Natural Gas using Encapsulated Metal Nanoparticle Catalysts’
Grant recipient: Jerrik Jørgen Mielby
Place of employment: Technical University of Denmark
Awarded amount: DKK 3,920,809
Project description: Development of new methods of producing sustainable chemicals and storing renewable energy depends largely on the development of more efficient catalytic processes. As biomass in principle is carbon-neutral, the development of more efficient catalysts for the production of synthetic natural gas therefore helps to limit the consumption of fossil resources and reduce carbon emissions.
Project title: ‘Advanced Time-lens Optical Systems for Enhanced Spectral and Energy Efficient Optical Communication (LENS-COM)’
Grant recipient: Pengyu Guan
Place of employment: Technical University of Denmark
Awarded amount: DKK 1,902,936
Project description: The project will explore optical time-lenses with the object of achieving dramatic improvements of the capacity in existing optical fibres with low energy consumption.
Project title: ‘MULTI-FUNCTION ANTI-FOULING BIO-ACTIVE SURFACES’
Grant recipient: Roberto Ortiz
Place of employment: Technical University of Denmark
Awarded amount: DKK 2,474,485
Project description: For surfaces in a liquid phase, the fouling of proteins, bacteria, and bioorganisms is normally referred to as biofouling. The purpose of this project is to develop surfaces that use a combination of passive and active mechanisms to prevent unwanted biofouling while ensuring that these surfaces can also be used as biosensors.
Project title: ‘MicroRNA based Chinese hamster ovary cell engineering towards improved recombinant protein N-glycosylation’
Grant recipient: Yuzhou Fan
Place of employment: Technical University of Denmark
Awarded amount: DKK 3,015,403
Project description: Recombinant proteins open up for new treatment options in future of many of the diseases that are difficult to treat—such as cancer and autoimmune diseases. In this project, we will combine state-of-the-art techniques, e.g., RNA sequencing, bioinformatics tools, and CRISPR/CAS9 genomic editing technology to screen for functional microRNA for N-glycosylation and develop stable manipulated CHO cells to produce optimum N-glycosylation patterns.