Tine Kliim Nydahl has been employed as a PhD student at Center for Hyperpolarization in Magnetic Resonance (HYPERMAG), starting 1 December 2017.
Tine will work on the project Metabolic Responses to Bacterial Pathogens.
The project will kick-start a new research area within HYPERMAG’s activities on biological/biochemical applications of hyperpolarization: the metabolic interplay between pathogens and host cells.
The PhD project is funded by Danish National Research Foundation, and is the first externally funded step into an important field that HYPERMAG researchers hope to obtain additional funding for further exploration.
Infectious diseases are a main cause of death and resistance to antibiotics treatment is a serious threat to the health of humans and animals worldwide. Several of the most deadly bacterial pathogens, such as Mycobacterium (tuberculosis), Neisseria (meningitis), Listeria (infections of the central nervous system) and salmonella (Typhoid fever) cause disease by multiplying inside human cells and acting as perfect parasites. Very little is known about the intimate metabolic crosstalk between pathogen and host cell, and consequently also very little about how treatments with drugs or prebiotics affect the metabolism of the pathogen and host cell.
Hyperpolarized Nuclear Magnetic Resonance is a powerful new method for monitoring biochemical reactions directly in cells which due to its sensitivity and selectivity has a unique potential for observing metabolic pathways. It is the hope that the technology can give new knowledge about the interplay and ultimately assist in a more rational discovery of new antibiotics.
Tine holds a BSc in Biotechnology and a MSc in Pharmaceutical Design and Engineering, both from Technical University of Denmark.
HYPERMAG’s Pernille Rose Jensen and Mathilde Hauge Lerche are Supervisors.