Highlights-2025

In 2025, CeMiSt showed that the ability of a bacterium to produce an antibiotic compound affects its establishment in a microbiome, but that this is not due to the antibiotic effect itself; rather, the bacterium’s biofilm formation is facilitated. We demonstrated that several secondary metabolites induce changes in the behaviour of nearby bacteria, and that many of these compounds are rapidly metabolized by other bacteria. This can function as “detoxification,” generate new chemistry, or simply serve as a carbon source for the degrading bacteria. Using two different methods, we succeeded in detecting bacterial antibiotic compounds directly in natural systems: In marine sediments, we can use resins to extract compounds that match those produced by bacteria isolated from the same niche. Finally, mass spectrometric imaging enabled us to demonstrate the presence of a bacterial antibiotic compound in bryozoans, which are presumably the natural niche of the producing bacteria.

CeMiSt published 20 scientific articles in 2025 and was once again represented on the Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher list with Professor Tilmann Weber. Four CeMiSt researchers (Tilmann Weber, Lone Gram, Thomas O. Larsen, and Ákos T. Kovács) appeared on the Stanford list of the 2% most cited researchers. Tilmann Weber was also appointed Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK). Two PhD students submitted their dissertations in 2025. CeMiSt researchers gave invited talks and presented posters at numerous conferences, and several received additional grants, including from the Independent Research Fund Denmark, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the EU, and the Villum Foundation.

CeMiSt hosted several local symposia with invited international guest researchers and participated in numerous outreach events. Together with the other DNRF research centers at DTU, CeMiSt participated in the Danish Science Festival (Forskningens Døgn) and held the annual two-day retreat at Rungstedlund, featuring presentations from all PhD students and postdocs in the center. Over the course of the year, two new PhD students, an associate professor, a senior researcher, and a postdoc joined the center, and CeMiSt gained another professor when Charlotte Held Godtfredsen was appointed in the spring. Finally, the artwork "Living soil," created in collaboration with researchers from CeMiSt, was inaugurated on 15 August at Viborg Gymnasium.