Highlights 2020

The restrictions to contain SARS-CoV-2 influenced CeMiSt activities, resulting in many being cancelled, postponed, or moved on-line. Despite the constraints, CeMiSt has had a very productive year.

The first Center PhDstudent, Heiko Kiesewalter, defended his thesis successfully in December 2020.

The Center published twenty articles in peer-reviewed journals. Professor Jennifer Martiny, UC Irvine, is visiting from Aug 2020 to Aug 2021. Several supporting research grants were received. SA2-recipient Mikkel Bentzon-Tilia and Lone Gram were featured in DYNAMO (DYNAMO 2020, no. 62) and on video. A photo by postdoc Anna Dragoš was one of seven runners-up in the DNRF yearly photo competition (cover photo of this report).

CeMiSt has received funding from the Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF) to organize a second international microbiome conference in 2021. One of the speakers at the 2019 conference, Professor Manuel Liebeke from the Max Plank Institute for Marine Microbiology, will visit CeMiSt in 2021 thanks to a new guest professor grant from the Otto Mønsted Foundation. Finally, CeMiSt scientists have received funding from Carlsberg (for soil Actinobacteria and small molecules), NNF (for algal microbiomes), EU H2020 (for marine microbiomes and small
molecules) and the Innovation Foundation (two industrial PhD students).

CeMiSt, using an NNF infrastructure grant, has purchased new equipment: a four-channel laser FluorescenceAssisted-Cell-Sorter, a cell counter, a luminescence microscope and a high-end mass spectrometry imaging equipment. This significantly improves our ability to query the spatial distribution and local concentration of secondary metabolites in complex microbial communities.

CeMiSt held its yearly retreat “in person” at Schæffegården following all corona measures. Discussing status, the near future and the far future. Several PhD students presented their progress in a
concise format during a manuscript pitch session. The retreat included a session on graphic visualization of science.

With CeMiSt as a driving force, DTU Bioengineering has finalized a Data Management Plan (DMP) document for the department. CeMiSt researchers all have a DMP and the Center has developed a prototype SQL database where all data can be stored and exploited following the FAIR principles.

Finally, Professor Lone Gram was accepted into the Royal Academy of Sciences and Letters of Denmark. Lone Gram also participated in the book Fortællinger fra Grundforskningens Grænseland published in collaboration between the DNRF and the Royal Academy of Science and Letters.