Faglige nøgleord: Microbes, Microbial communities, Microbiome, Microbial Chemical Ecology, Chemistry, Biology, Natural Products, Antibiotics, Biosynthesis, Marine Ecosystems, Rhizosphere
Oplæg tilgængeligt på: Engelsk
In this presentation, I introduce students to the tiny but powerful world of microbes, specifically those living around the roots of seagrass. Seagrass meadows are hotspots of marine life, and their roots host diverse microbial communities that communicate, compete, and survive using an impressive arsenal of chemicals called secondary metabolites. These include familiar types of substances like antibiotics and antifungals — but in nature, these chemicals may often serve very different ecological purposes.
I will explain what microbes are, what secondary metabolites are and what they do, and why scientists are interested in them beyond medicine. Students will learn how advances in genetics and chemical analysis now allow us to detect microbial metabolites directly in the environment, rather than only in the lab. This forms the basis of my PhD research, where I sample seagrass meadows to investigate which metabolites microbes actually produce when in their native environments.
Throughout the talk, students will be actively involved. I will bring simple props such as seagrass samples and resins we use to capture metabolites, and I will use short quizzes and questions to break down common misconceptions about microbes and inform how we use microbes in our everyday life.
I will also share my journey from high school to becoming a PhD student at DTU, including how my interest in chemistry, biology, and the environment grew over time, what I studied at university, and how I ended up specializing in microbial chemical ecology and metabolomics. I hope to simplify the path to research and show students that careers in science can develop little by little, and not always from having everything figured out early.