Three Center researchers land Carlsberg grants
Three researchers from the Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics have been awarded funding from the Carlsberg Foundation, amounting to more than 6,5 million DKK between them.
The new round of Carlsberg funding announcements includes three researchers from the Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics. The recipients are Associate Professor Morten Tørnsberg Limborg, Postdoc Ida Hartvig, and Associate Professor Antton Alberdi. This funding will provide the basis for two new research projects and upscaling data generation in the existing project, the Earth Hologenome Initiative.
Young Researcher Fellowship
Associate Professor Morten Tønsberg Limborg has received 5 million DKK in a Carlsberg Foundation Young Researcher Fellowship grant for his new research project “Epo-Evo: Does the EPigenOme - microbiome axis control adaptive EVOlution?”.
This project will study how the epigenome represents an essential component in understanding how a host animal might control for the presence of beneficial microbes that improve gut health and adaptive potential of the host animal. In the long term, the results can potentially be applied to improve gut health and wellbeing in both humans and animals.
Read the project description here.
New Assistant professor to join the Center
Postdoc Ida Hartvig has secured 1,24 million DKK on a Carlsberg Foundation Reintegration Fellowship Grant for her research project “Do plant microbiomes shape adaptive potential of their hosts? A hologenomic approach to distribution and adaptation”. She will join the Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics as an Assistant Professor in the spring of 2022.
The project will investigate if a plant’s individual genome determines the range and diversity of microorganisms it is able to associate with, and whether any differences in microbiomes between plant species are related to different abilities to spread and adapt. This research is especially important in the face of climate change and the accelerating climatic and landscape changes plants need to survive in, adding to our knowledge of the role that microorganisms play for the plants’ ability to exploit and adapt to its environment.
Read the project description here.
Earth Hologenome Initiative to increase data generation
Lastly, Associate Professor Antton Alberdi has landed an additional 305.968 DKK on top of his Young Researcher Fellowship grant from 2020 for the Earth Hologenome Initiative, which will perform the first global mapping of spatial variation of animal-microbiome interactions.
This additional funding will be used to scale-up the data generation capacity of the project, which has over 120 researchers collecting samples that are both whole-genome and shotgun sequenced to characterise genomic features and associated gut microbial communities. This project will help to map zoonotic diseases, identify potential probiotic strains, and understand how animals adapt to climate change through their genomes and associated microorganisms.
Read a summary for the Earth Hologenome Initiative here.
Finally, on top of those happy news, we are happy to congratulate our GLOBE colleagues Kristine Bohmann, Morten Tange, Karina Sand and Luise Brandt for also landing Carlsberg Foundation Young Researcher Fellowship and Research Infrastructure grants.
Contact
Associate Professor Morten Limborg