Category: News

The team has grown.

A lot has happened since the last update in autumn 2022.

So what is new?

In November 2023, Karina Hernandez, an oceanographer from UNAM, Mexico, started her Ph.D. with us. Her research topic is methane cycling and microbial interactions mediated by minerals in marine sediments from arctic and subarctic coastlines.

We hosted Teto Sheitshiro, a geomicrobiology Ph.D. student, from the University of Manchester (Lloyd lab). Teto has been with us for 3-months working on anaerobic methane oxidation coupled with iron reduction.

Mid-January 2023, two molecular biology and biotechnology students from the University of Rome joined the team with ERASMUS fellowships. Valentina Palushi and Pamela Ciacia are now learning to create mutants in Geobacter and study environmental consortia dependent on conductive particles.

In February, we welcomed four BSc thesis students to the team. Sarah Sabro Damgaard is continuing her hunt for isolating methanogens from marine sediments after a successful independent study activity in our team. Anne Salsgaard Anderson has started a bachelor thesis studying the best conditions for electromethanogenesis by Methanosacina. Sebastian Bak Bjørnskov is developing a vector construct for gene modifications of Geobacter metallireducens. Ask Våtvik Balsløv is looking at differences in cellular aggregation in marine and freshwater Methanosarcina species.

In March 2023, we will welcome a material science engineering Ph.D. student from UCAS, China – Yanan Wang. Yanan isolated methanogens and sulfate reducers from corroded pipelines in China. She won a UCAS fellowship to join the team for one year to study interspecies interactions between her isolates and the impact of the coupled partners on steel corrosion.

Several new lab members are joining us this autumn.

In September, we will welcome three lab members: Satoshi Kawaichi as a staff scientist, Malene Arreborg as a Ph.D. student and Sarah Sabro Damgård as a third-year ISA student.
In October and November, we welcome two postdocs. In October, Kostas Anestis will join us from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. He will be the first hire on the Consolidator grant awarded this year by the European Research Council to Amelia.
In November, Ghazaleh Garib will join us from Sabacic University in Istambul, Turkey. She will work with the Electromethanogenesis team toward improving methane production at the cathode.

New lab member

In July, we will welcome our new postdoc Rhitu Kotoki from the Regional Centre for Biotechnology, Faridabad, India. Rhitu has a Ph.D. in microbiology from Assam University. He has a background in microbial genetics, omics and bioinformatics. He is interested to study the genetic and physiological properties of microorganisms with biotechnological potential. You can read more about his previous work here.

When joining the team, Rhitu will be involved in better understanding extracellular electron uptake in methanogens and manipulating genes to improve this property. He will be part of a team of 5 that will investigate strategies to improve the microbial conversion of CO₂ from waste gas and renewable electricity to a fuel, methane, that can be stored.

The project is funded by a Novo Nordisk Ascending Investigator grant awarded to AE Rotaru.

Incredible news. Amelia received an ERC consolidator grant for the project: Conductive MInerals As Electrical Conduits In METhane Cycling (MIMET).

ERC consolidator grants are awarded to excellent researchers based in Europe, that are 7-12 years from receiving their PhD. The purpose of these grants is for established young labs to strengthen their research teams. This is a grant of 2 million euros (ca. 14 million Dkk-), based at the University of Southern Denmark.

With MIMET, we aim to understand how interactions between microbes and mineral particles may affect the methane cycle. Several postdocs and PhD positions will become available. If you’re interested in this topic and have a suitable background please write to [email protected] to discuss opportunities.

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. “