Year: 2021

Amelia received a DFF project 2 as principal investigator in June 2021. The grant is a collaboration between the University of Southern Denmark and Aarhus University. The co-investigators at AU are Prof. Bo Barker Jørgensen, Associate Prof. Hans Røy and Associate Prof. Kasper Urup Kjeldsen.

The title of the project is “Seabed methane cycling by reversible electron transfer between archaea and bacteria”. We will be looking for new sources of methane in the seabed.

We are really excited to start working on this topic.

Here is a popular abstract (in danish) of the work we will be doing.

Below you find the translated abstract (in English):

“A new source of methane production in the seabed was surprisingly discovered in a subsurface zone otherwise thought only to break down methane. This sulfate-methane transition (SMT) zone is inhabited by anaerobic methanotrophs (ANME-1), which typically oxidize methane in partnership with sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB). We aim to determine the energetics and controls on such a cryptic methane production and whether ANME-1 can perform both methane oxidation and methane production depending on substrate and syntrophic partner availability. This may be the first known example of an organism that can shift the direction of its energy metabolism by exchanging electrons with different bacterial partners that either take up or give off electrons. We will apply sensitive experimental and analytical techniques to understand how interspecies electron transfer in archaea and bacteria functions through conductive cell surface properties or via conducting mineral grains in the seabed. “

After receiving the great news that the Novo Nordisk Foundation will support research in my lab on electromethanogenesis for the following 5 years, I’ve been interviewed by several journalists about the proposed work.

Here are some of the articles they wrote:

Major grant for research on microorganisms for producing sustainable biofuels

370 millioner kroner til 38 forskere

News with a slight delay.

Our new article “A Win–Loss Interaction on Fe⁰ Between Methanogens and Acetogens From a Climate Lake” dealing with biocorrosion was published this May in Frontiers in Microbiology.

In this work:

• We studied how microbial communities from climate lake sediments promote microbial-influenced Fe0 corrosion when no other electron donor and acceptors are available.
• Observed that Clostridia and Methanobacterium were the only groups detected after 11 subsequent transfers solely with zero valent iron (Fe0) as the electron donor.
• Methanobacterium were ineffective corroders in the absence of the acetogens, although they do not use acetate for methanogenesis. These results suggested that acetogens promote hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis in other ways.
• Observed that cell exudates (spent media filtrate extracted during the acetogenesis phase) promoted H2-evolution from Fe0, partially due to thermolabile enzymes and partially due to non-thermolabile constituents released by cells.
• Clostridial [FeFe] hydrogenases were abundant in the metagenome of this corrosive community and may play a role in promoting hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis.

Ascending Investigator grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

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It is an honor to have received a prestigious Novo Ascending Investigator grant in biotechnology synthesis and production. The Ascending program is aimed at supporting ambitious and original research projects and the continued development of top researchers in the Nordic region.

This grant gives me the opportunity to continue my research on determining how electroactive methanogens utilize extracellular electron donors.

Several PhD and postdoc positions will be announced soon, and hiring will happen during 2021-2022. If interested in this type of research, please contact me via email.

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Here is a popular and public abstract of the application:

“We face three biotechnology challenges: producing chemicals sustainably, capturing carbon dioxide, and storing renewable energy. This proposal deals with the fundamental understanding of a technology where all three challenges are addressed concomitantly. My group recently discovered that certain microorganisms used in biotechnology (methanogens called Methanosarcinales) directly capture renewable energy and carbon dioxide, converting these into useful chemicals, which can be stored. Nevertheless, we do not understand how these microorganisms capture electrical energy directly, a mechanism which we will explore in this proposal. We will then evaluate whether we can use this method of direct energy capture inherently or whether we can engineer it to create a solution to producing chemicals sustainably, capturing carbon dioxide, and storing renewable energy.”