EU H2020 ITN MiCCroTAckle (2024-2028) - Advancing Research at the Intersection Between Gut Microbiota and Cancer Cachexia to Train

The Bacterial Synthetic Biology Section at the Center for Biosustainability is led by Professor Morten O. A. Sommer. We work broadly within microbiology as it applies to human and planetary health. We develop and apply novel technologies within the fields of microbiome synthetic biology and microbial foods.
The two main research areas in the lab are:
As researchers we consider it of key importance that our work has the broadest impact possible. Accordingly, we pay close attention to the potential applications of our work and actively seek to commercialize research results or otherwise deploy them for the benefit of society. Over the past decade members of the laboratory have co-founded several companies, which now employs hundreds of people and are bringing new products and services to the market.
Our work is broadly aimed towards understanding how microbial systems establish, organize and evolve and affect their hosts and environment. We study these systems with a goal towards engineering them for applications within human and planetary health.
We use cutting edge technology and aim to translate our basic research findings into entities, policies and education that provide long term benefits to society.
Synthetic biology for sustainable food production
Earth’s population could reach 10 B people leading to a 50-80% increase in global demand for food. Current agriculture cannot support this and climate impact of continuing food production as is would be catastrophic as food production already accounts for approximately 1/3 of total greenhouse gas emissions and +49 million square kilometers corresponding to 38% of earth’s land mass. To address this global challenge a combination of new food habits and radical innovation in food production must take place. We use the term microbial foods to describe the use of microbiology for food production comprising everything from natural fermentations to microbial biomass and cell factories. Our research is applications oriented with a goal of developing technology that solves some of the pressing needs of our food system.
Human microbiome and engineered microbiome therapeutics
The human microbiome is to an increasing extent being implicated in a wide range of disease and health states. We study the human microbiome during interventions, with a particular focus on antibiotic treatment and resulting microbiome modulation. We design and build new interventions for modulating the microbiome to promote specific community compositions or functionality. We also design and build interventions that can amend the functionality encoded in the gut microbiome.
Understanding and addressing heterogeneity in large scale fermentations
Industrial-scale biomanufacturing of therapeutics, enzymes, and chemicals relies on cultivating large volumes of engineered cells in fed-batch or continuous bioprocesses. Clonal expansion of high-performing producer cells can favor the emergence of low-producing escape variants that have shed the load from metabolic burden or toxicities imposed by product synthesis or secretion. Eventually, these low- or non-producing variants can reduce product yield and quality, making genetic homogeneity a crucial, yet often overlooked parameter of process scale-up. We are investigating this problem as it applies to industrial biomanufacturing and develop synthetic biology solutions to limit its detrimental effects on scale-up.
Past research area: Antibiotic resistance and collateral sensitivity
Evolution is rendering our medicines against many infections useless threatening to bring us back to the pre-antibiotic era. In many cases resistance to a particular antibiotic did not evolve within the resistant human pathogen, but rather was acquired by lateral gene transfer from other resistant bacteria. These resistant donor bacteria need not be pathogenic, yet they contribute to the evolution of antibiotic resistance in human pathogens by serving as an accessible reservoir of resistance genes. We used a variety of culture-dependent and culture-independent methods to characterize how these reservoirs are interacting, with the ultimate goal of creating quantitative models for how antibiotic resistance genes arise in human pathogens. We also studied the adaptive mechanisms of drug resistance and collateral sensitivity using a combination of laboratory evolution and sampling of clinical isolates, with the goal of developing novel treatment strategies for countering resistance development.
Professor
PA
PhD
PhD
PhD
PhD
PhD
PhD
Resources to hire personal and conduct experiments are a prerequisite for the laboratory to succeed in its endeavors. Accordingly, we greatly acknowledge the research funding and support we have received since the start of the group in 2010. The laboratory has been sponsored by national and international funding agencies as well as private foundations. This funding has been essential in order to advance our research:
Novo Nordisk Foundation (2018-2024) – Design and Engineering of Biological Molecules and Systems
Novo Nordisk Foundation (2023-2024) – Advanced Microbial Therapeutic for Bile Acid Sulfation in Obesity Treatment
Novo Nordisk Foundation (2021-2022) – A novel bacterial platform for in situ engineering of human immune cells
Novo Nordisk Foundation (2022-2023) – Immunomodulation of the tumor microenvironment using tumor-targeting cytokine-secreting bacteria
Novo Nordisk Foundation (2020-2022) – Microbial cell therapies for modulating the gut-brain axis
EU H2020 ITN BestTreat (2018-2021) – Building a Gut Microbiome Engineering Toolbox for In-Situ Therapeutic Treatments for Non-alcohlic Fatty Liver Disease
SIPROS (2016-2020) – Virtual Laboratory Simulations for Increased Productivity and Occupational Standards in the Biotechnology Industry
EU ERC Starting Grant (2015-2020) – Utilizing evolutionary interactions to limit multidrug resistance
DFF Sapere Aude (2014-2020) – Novel treatment strategies for countering durg resistance
EU H2020 ITN MetaRNA (2015-2019) – RNA-based technologies for single-cell metabolite analysis
Novo Nordisk Foundation (2014-2018) – Biosensor-based genome screening platform for the production of Biosynthethic Precursors and coFactorrs in E.coli
Lundbeck Foundation (2013-2017) – Elucidating antibiotic resistance gene exchange network
EU FP7 PROMYS project (2013-2017) – Programming synthetic networks for bio-based production of value chemicals
EU FP7 ITN Bactory (2012-2016) – Bacterial Factories for Sustainable Chemical and Drug Production
Lundbeck Foundation (2011-2014) – <Understanding the evolution and dissemination of antibiotic resistance
FSS (2011-2014) – Complex drug mixtures for fighting MRSA
Højteknologigonden (2012-2015) – Molecular dianostics for infectious disease
EU FP7 Evotar project (2011-2014) – Evolution and Transfer of Antibiotic Resistance
Full list from pubmed
Full list from Google Scholar
*Denotes equal contribution
# corresponding author
The laboratory is committed towards making an impact on society. This is done in part through translational activities. Since the initiation of the laboratory a number of companies have been established by lab members, including:
Bioinformatic tools
The laboratory has developed a range of bioinformatic tools that are freely available online:
Reagents
The laboratory is happy to share any published strains or plasmids.
To simplify this process some of our published reagents have been deposited to AddGene for easy access.
For other reagents not available from AddGene, please contact Morten Sommer.
Post docs and PhD students
Talented and motivated applicants interested in joining our lab as a post doctoral fellow or a PhD-student should send their application, including CV and references to:
Morten Sommer
msom@bio.dtu.dk
While funding is available for some positions, we encourage candidates to apply for their own funding (salary).
Undergraduate and Master student projects
The Sommer lab has a wide range of projects available for master students (speciale) and undergraduates. If you are interested in our research and would like to do a project in the lab please contact Morten Sommer for further information. Please include CV and your grades from your studies so far.
Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability – Bacterial Synthetic Biology Section
Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability
Kemitorvet, Building 220
DK-2800 Kongens Lyngby
Denmark
Lab: E310, E315 and E418
Offices: E321, E323 and E324F
Morten Sommer contact info
Email: msom@bio.dtu.dk
Office: E318F