Business DevelopmentStrategy and organisationSales & marketingPeople management / Intern recruitment and supervisionFundraising

Turning the scientific method, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), into a business product.Ad hoc business tasks for customers in industry and academia.

Biotech-Business and startups advisor to the founders of Vanaheim Bio. Vanaheim Bio develops novel small molecule-based therapeutics targeting age-associated DNA damage as a new avenue for the treatment of neurological decline present in e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia.

Member of the ODIN Steering Committee. Invited as Industry Innovation Expert, representing the voice of startups, spinouts and SMEs.

https://www.beyondbeta.dk/about

Testing biomolecules for drug-delivery across the blood-brain-barrier.- Comprehensive experience in quantitating cellular uptake of potent molecules by microscopy.- Designed, conducted and documented systematic screening trials comparing different molecules across different in vitro cell models to identify most potent candidates for further testing- Developed and implemented new screening strategies and data-analysis pipelines for HCS Analysis to address change in cell phenotypes e.g. size, shape or intracellular organelles.- Project management on independent projects and multiple microscope-related collaborations.- Acting group microscope expert: Preparing standard protocols, teaching and consulting for groupmembers and presenting oral talks on technical topics.

RNA biologyMethod development in Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and target validation- Developed a new approach for isolation and analysis of dsRNA species.- Designed novel validation methodology for in situ detection of circRNA validation (Venø et. al. Genome Biology, 2015). - Participate in ongoing projects on the role of specific RNAs (mRNA, miRNA and circRNAs) in cortical folding, involving library preparation, big data management and target validation. Method-experience includes: Working with and isolating mRNA, rRNA, miRNA, circRNA, viral and exosome RNA; RNA isolation – from classic phenol/chloroform extraction, to TrizolTM and column based; Next Generation Sequencing (NGS); Library preparation (NGS); luciferase validation; in situ validation by FISH; qPCR; cloning and more.

Aging researchThe project took place at Danish Centre for Molecular Gerontology, in continuation of my PhD. During my time with Tinna Stevnsner, the main focus was the role of DNA repair and modification and the implications on quality of life and aging (se below for details)

Aging research The project took place at Danish Centre for Molecular Gerontology, where I adressed healthy aging by studying DNA repair proteins, mainly from a biochemical angle. Here I gained an in-depth experience with, and understanding of, biochemical principles in protein-nucleic acid dynamics. From this, I have grown to be a strong troubleshooter; finding and righting the key-component when experiments don't work. E.g. I have demonstrated that a difference in protein activity in a classic in vitro setup was a false-positive, caused by a buffer dicrepancy (Venø et. al. Biochimie, 2015). Another time, I found the lack of reproducibility between collaborating laboratories was mainly caused by the difference between water-source. Method-experience includes: Extensive: Biochemistry – physical and functional dynamics between nucleic acid and protein; molecular cloning; radioimmuno based assays; cell culture (human, mouse, insect (baculo/virus) and E.coli); generating stable cell lines; subcellular fractionation (nuclear and mitochondria isolation); general method development; project planning (conceiving ideas, practical planning step-by-step, drafting budget and ordering, executing and documenting the experiments), scientific writing (e.g. journal paper and grant applications); dissemination (both scientific and to the general public). Basic: Protein purification; confocal microscopy (direct and indirect immunofluorescence); antibody purification; Library preparation; Mass spectrometry; quantitative qPCR

During my stay at Laboratory of Molecular Gerontology, National Institutes on Aging, NIH, USA, I did research focussed on the role of DNA repair in aging.