Synthetic Biology
Our group elucidates how key natural products are formed, stored and remobilized to exert their on-demand specific biological functions in plants.
Using Synthetic Biology and in collaboration with nature, we aim to develop algae and plants as future powerhouses for light-driven synthesis of desired high value compounds and bulk chemicals and facilitate transition to a bio-based society.
Our Synthetic Biology approach integrates legal studies, bioethics and communication to equip society and scientists to take part in constructive dialogues on new technologies and Responsible Research and Innovation.
CYANOGENIC GLUCOSIDES
- Formation and biological function of natural products: Cyanogenic & hydroxynitrile glucosides
The formation, storage, remobilization and bio-activation of cyanogenic glucosides and hydroxynitrile glucosides in barley and sorghum with focus on their functions as plant defense compounds and storage forms of reduced nitrogen.
Contact: Assistant Professor Mette Sørensen - Moon-lighting functions of CYP79 family enzymes
Cytochrome P450 functionalities with special focus on the possible moon-lightning functions of CYP79s involving formation of N-hydroxylated compounds with signaling or hormonal activities.
Contact: Assistant Professor Mette Sørensen
- Wild crop relatives in breading crops and fodder plants for the future
Wild crop relatives in breading crops and fodder plants for the future with focus on wild sorghums from Australia devoid of the cyanogenic glucosides in their leaves and based on genome sequencing of selected species.
Contact: Professor Birger Lindberg Møller
- Storage of bioactive natural products using NADES
The role of Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents (NADES) in the storage of bioactive natural products in living cells without auto-toxicity using accumulation of vanillin glucoside in in the vanilla pod and the cyanogenic glucoside dhurrin in sorghum as experimental systems.
Contact: Post doctoral fellow Rocio Ochoa Fernandez
TERPENOIDS
- Pathway discovery of high-value compounds
Vanillin, stevia glucosides, carminic acid, forskolin, celastrol, glucosides, cannabinoids and non-addictive opioid pain killers.
Contact: Professor Birger Lindberg Møller
- Desert-loving therapeutics: Compounds from the Australian Eremophila
Identification of cis-type diterpenoids and other classes of bioactive natural products with interesting therapeutic properties within the Eremophila genus in the Western Australian desert.
Contact: Professor Birger Lindberg Møller
- Evolution of marsupial gut microbiomes with special focus on the koala microbiomeand its role in detoxification of toxic metabolites in eucalypts leaves.
Contact person: Birger Lindberg Møller
- Genome sequencing and annotation of ancient grains of broomcorn millet from the Areni-1 cave in Armenia with focus on the organization of genes involved in natural product biosynthesis.
Contact person: Birger Lindberg Møller
OUTLOOK
- Ethics, communication and legal aspects related to synthetic biology such as gene editing technologies
Contact: Research coordinator Nanna Heinz/Professor Birger Lindberg Møller
Birger Lindberg Møller
- Carlsberg Foundation, Semper Ardens: Crops for the Future. Focus on development of resilient crop plants for the future using the FIND-IT technology
- NNF-Distinguished Investigator: The Black Holes in the Plant Universe. Focus on how plants store high-value compounds in dense bio-condensates
- VILLUM Experiment: Plants’ Black Diamonds. Focus on a possible role of natural deep eutectic solvents in plants
- Lundbeck Foundation: Brewing Diterpenoids. Focus on diterpenoids as drug leads for treatment of movement related diseases as Parkinson´s and Alzheimer´s.
- NNF-Interdisciplinary Synergy Program: Desert-loving Therapeutics with focus on identification of diterpenoids and other classes of bioactive natural products with interesting therap
Mette Sørensen
- NNF postdoctoral fellowship 2021 within Plant Science, Agriculture and Food Biotechnology - project 'Climate Ready Crop Plants'.
Partners and networks
My collaboration and interaction with many different types of researchers results in a highly interdisciplinary and active research environment fostered by mutual visits between the labs. In addition to the basic research that we do, we like to see our research applied and therefore we collaborate with many different types of industries. Below you will find a list of some of our collaborators.
Australia
University of Queensland: Phil Hugenholtz (koala microbiome), Ben Hankamer (light driven P450s), Elizabeth Gillam (ancestral sequence reconstruction). Robert J. Henry (wild sorghums, bioproduction), Currently funded by Australian Research Council
University of Melbourne: Ian Woodrow (eucalypt terpenoids), Mike Bayly (plant systematics, chloroplast genome sequencing), Roslyn Gleadow (sorghum ecophysiology)
University of South Australia: Susan Semple (natural products chemistry , inhibitors of multidrug resistant bacteria, and aboriginal contact person)
University of Perth: Bevan Buirchell (botanist, Eremophila expert)
Australian Grains Genebank: Sally L. Norton
Seedtek Pty. Ltd.: Peter Stuart
France
Institut de biologie moléculaire des Plantes (IBMP) Strasbourg: Daniele Werck
Germany
Karlsruhe Institute for Architectural design, Art and Theory. bioART, Jens Hauser (green transition),
Technical University of Munich: Corinna Dawid
UK
The James Hutton Institute: Kelly Houston
USA
University of Tennessee, Memphis: David R. Nelson, Texas A&M University: John E. Mullet, University of California: Robert Jinkerson, Krishna Niyogi UNC Charlotte: Tingting Xiang,
Canada
The University of British Columbia: Joerg Bohlmann,
Denmark
Faculty of Science (UCPH)Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences:
Nanna Bjarnholt (MS-imaging technologies)
Tomas Laursen (metabolic plasticity)
Elizabeth Heather Nielson (ecophysiology)
Department of Chemistry
Nikos Hatzakis (single molecule studies)
Faculty of Health (UCPH Department of Food Science
Søren Balling Engelsen (chemometrics); Poul Erik Jensen (photosynthesis, algae)
Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology
Claus Juhl Løland (neurotransmitters)
Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology
Dan Stærk (NMR structure elucidation)
Faculty of Law (UCPH Center for Information and Innovation Law
Timo Minssen (biomedical innovation law)
Helen Yu (responsible research and innovation)
Technical Univeristy of Denmark (DTU) Department of Technology, Management and Economics: Maja Horst
Carlsberg Research Laboratory
Birgitte Skadhauge, Christoph Dockter, Søren Knudsen (FIND-IT technology, sorghum and barley genetics)
Octaine – CEO and co-founder Nethaji J. Gallage (cannabinoids)
River Stone Biotech Esben Halkjær, Jørgen Hansen (opioid derivatives)
TriotoBIO – Co-founder & CTO Johan Andersen Ranberg
Aalborg University: Professor MSO David Budtz Pedersen, Social responsibility and ethics, interdisciplinary research)
National Film School of Denmark, Documentary Film maker Phie Ambo (film contributions),
Roskilde University: Associate professor Alfred Birkegaard Hansted
BiologiGaragen, Martin Malthe Borch etc.
Spin-out companies: Octarine Bio (Nethaji J Gallage); Tripto-Bio (Johan Andersen-Ranberg) Evodia Bio (Victor Forman)
We have a large number of important additional collaborators who may be identified from our joint publications.
Publications
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Z. Xia, Z. Du, X. Zhou, S. Jiang, T. Zhu, L. Wang, F. Chen, L. Carvalho, M. Zou, L.A.B. Lopez Lavalle, X. Zhang, L. Xu, Z. Wang, M. Chen, X. Guo, S. Wang, M. Li, Y. Li, H. Wang, S. Liu, Y. Bao, L. Zhao, C. Zhang, J. Xiao, F. Guo, X. Shen, H. Li, C. Lu, F. Qiao, H. Ceballos, H. Yan, X. Qin, L. Ma, H. Zhang, S. He, W. Zhao, Y. Wan, Y. Chen, D. Huang, K. Li, B. Liu, M. Peng, W. Zhang, B.L. Møller, X. Chen, M.-C. Luo, J. Xiao, W. Wang: Pan genome and haplotype map of cassava cultivars and wild ancestors provide insights into its adaptive evolution and domestication. Molecular Plant, 18, 1047–1071 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molp.2025.05.014 Front cover
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K. Jiang, B.L. Møller, S.F. Luo, Y. Yang, D. R. Nelson, E.H.J. Neilson, J.M. Christensen, K. Hua, C. Hu, X.H. Zeng, M.S. Motawie, T. Wan, G.W. Hu, Y.J. Wang, J.D. Gaitán-Espitía, Z.W. Wang, X.-Y. Xu, J. M. He, L. Wang, Y. Li, D.-H. Peng, S. Lan, H. Zhang, Q.-F. Wang, Z.-J. Liu, W.-C. Huang: Genome of Darwin’s orchid reveals convergent evolution of oxime biosynthesis. Molecular Plant 18,:1–24 (2025), https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.02.546475. Front cover and topic of Spotlight article
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C. Dockter, S. Knudsen, B. Skadhauge and B.L. Møller: Just FIND-ITTM: Harnessing the true power of induced mutagenesis. Plant Biotechnology Journal 22: 3051-3053 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1111/pbi.14427
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Y. Zhao, O. Gericke, T. Li, L. Kjaerulff, K.T. Kongstad, A.M. Heskes, B.L. Møller, F.S. Jørgensen, H. Venter, S. Coriani, S. J. Semple, and D. Staerk: Polypharmacology-labelled molecular networking for discovery of antihyperglycemic and antibacterial diterpenoids in the Australian desert plant Eremophila rugosa. Analytical Chemistry 95, 4381-4389 (2023); https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.analchem.2c04859
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S. Knudsen , T. Wendt, C. Dockter, H.C. Thomsen, M. Rasmussen , M. Egevang Jørgensen, Q. Lu, C. Voss, E. Murozuka, J.T. Østerberg, J. Harholt, I. Braumann, J.A. Cuesta-Seijo, S.M. Kale, S. Bodevin, L. Tang Petersen, M. Carciofi, P.R. Pedas, J. Opstrup Husum, M.T.S. Nielsen, K. Nielsen, M.K. Jensen, L.A. Møller, Z. Gojkovic, A. Striebeck, K. Lengeler, R.T. Fennessy, M. Katz, R. Garcia Sanchez, N. Solodovnikova, J. Förster, O. Olsen, B.L. Møller, G.B. Fincher, B. Skadhauge: FIND-IT: Accelerated trait development for a green evolution. Science Advances, 8: eabq2266 (2022); https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abq2266410.
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B. Jensen, S. Thodberg, S. Parween, M.E. Moses, C.C. Hansen, J. Thomsen, M.B. Sletfjerding, C. Knudsen, R.D. Giudice, P.M. Lund, P.R. Castaño, Y.G. Bustamante, M.N.R. Velazquez, F.S. Jørgensen, A.V. Pandey, T. Laursen, B.L. Møller, N.S. Hatzakis: Biased cytochrome P450-mediated metabolism via small-molecule ligands binding P450 oxidoreductase. Nature Communications 12: 2260 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22562-w
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Sánchez-Pérez, S. Pavan, R. Mazzeo, C. Moldovan, RA Cigliano, J. Del Cueto, F. Ricciardi, C. Lotti, L. Ricciardi, F. Dicenta, R.L. López-Marqués, B. L. Møller: Mutation of a bHLH transcription factor allowed almond domestication. SCIENCE 364: 1095-1098 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aav8197
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Sørensen, E.H.J. Neilson, B.L. Møller: Oximes: Unrecognized Chameleons in General and Specialized Plant Metabolism. Molecular Plant 11: 95-117 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molp.2017.12.014
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Kannangara, L. Siukstaite, J. Borch-Jensen, B. Madsen, K.T. Kongstad, D. Stærk, M. Bennedsen, F.T. Okkels, S.A. Rasmussen, T.O. Laursen, R.J.N. Frandsen, B.L. Møller: Characterization of a membrane-bound C-glucosyltransferase responsible for carminic acid biosynthesis in Dactylopius coccus Costa. Nature Communications 8: 1987 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02031-z
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Laursen, J. Borch, C. Knudsen, K. Bavishi, F. Torta, H.J. Martens, D. Silvestro, N.S. Hatzakis, M.R. Wenk, T.R. Dafforn, C.E. Olsen, M.S. Motawia, B. Hamberger, B.L. Møller, J.E. Bassard: Characterization of a dynamic metabolon producing the defense compound dhurrin in sorghum. SCIENCE 354: 890-893 (2016); https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aag2347
Patents
- B.L. Møller, E.H. Hansen, N.J. Gallage, J. Hansen: Microbial organism and methods for producing vanillin, vanillyl alcohol, or vanillin glucoside, by vanillin synthase action on ferulic acid. USA International Patent Application PCT/DK2013/050357. Submission date: November 5th 2013.
Forskere/gruppemedlemmer
| Navn | Titel | Arbejdsområde | Telefon | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Birger Lindberg Møller | Professor | +4535333352 | ||
| Isabella Kruse-Andersen | Indskrevet ph.d.-studerende | +4535324360 | ||
| Mengqi Liu | Postdoc | |||
| Mohammed Saddik Motawie | Lektor | |||
| Nanna Heinz | Centerkoordinator | |||
| Pernille Forsberg Lyneborg | Erhvervs-ph.d. | |||
| Stavaniya Ghosh | Videnskabelig assistent | +4535331698 |