Research Interests

 

I am a molecular biologist trained within construction of regulatory networks, protein:protein and protein:DNA interactions. Throughout my research training I have put great attention to using new technologies to answer basic research questions within the field of transcriptional regulation of living cells. In my current research I focus on the synthetic biology tools development for speeding the throughput of the design-build-test cycle adopted in metabolic engineering of yeast cell factories.

In the section Synthetic Biology Tools for Yeast (SBTY) we develop engineering tools and high-resolution data that can dramatically increase the speed, efficiency and rational by which yeast-based cell factories are engineered, screened and selected for. The laboratory is part of the Novo Nordisk Foundation center for Biosustainability at the Technical University of Denmark. In SBTY We put particular emphasis on how to engineer and evolve yeast genomes for improved performance of yeast as biocatalysts, and the development of high-throughput screening and selection tools enabled by genetically encoded biosensor devices.  By way of our new synthetic biology tools, metabolic engineers and modelers are able to accelerate the turn-around time for cell factory development. Currently we are 5 PostDocs. 4 PhD students and 2  Research technicians in our group, with complementary expertise within metabolic engineering, evolution, genetics and bioengineering. 


Read more about Synthetic Biology Tools for Yeast.

About the Projects


Dr. Michael Krogh Jensen

About the Lab

Project 7: Characterized Parts Library & Pathway Evolver


Metabolic pathway flux is subject to diverse layers of regulation. In order to rationally select and engineer regulatory elements for control of single- and multi-step biosynthetic pathways there is a need for gathering high-resolution data on the sequence-function relationship of pathway regulation, and translate this knowledge into algorithms for prediction of best-performing combinations of regulatory elements. This project will focus on the generation of large libraries of variant designs of selected biosynthetic pathways and use biosensors to explore the performance of the individual pathway designs. The project is in collaboration with BioCad company TeselaGen (CA, US) and the Joint BioEnergy Institute in Emeryville, CA (USA). 

PhD project 8: Biosensor for detection of pathway intermediates and chemicals, and enzyme evolution

Directed evolution of key enzymes involved in conversion of substrate intermediates to high-value chemicals has proven vital for pathway flux optimization. In this project the talented student will be using saturated mutagenesis and high-throughput screening using biosensors to select protein variants with improved performance for one or several candidatetest beds. By way of vigorous FACS-based gating, subpopulations will next-generation sequenced in order to understand the structure-function relationship of evolved enzymes, and use this information for rational design of new enzymes. The project is in collaboration with SeSam Biotech (GER).