POUL DUE JENSEN FOUNDATION RESEARCH Ready for the BIG logistics challenge In the 1750s, Danish King Frederik V initiated Flora Danica, acknowledged as the world’s largest and most beautiful botanical work. The iconic masterpiece contains illustrations of 3240 native Danish plants. In a similar manner, Microflora Danica will map Denmark’s microorganisms, but whereas Flora Danica took 122 years to complete, a group of scientists from the University of Aalborg will create their encyclopaedia of microflora in just four years. The team behind the Microflora Danica project spent the fall of 2019 designing a large-scale sample collection. Over the next few years, 10,000 soil and water samples from 50 different types of nature and culture across Denmark will be collected, analysed and determined as part of the making of a database of bacteria and micro organisms in Denmark. The research project is formally lead by professor Per Halkjær Nielsen and professor MSO1 Mads Albertsen from the AAU Center for Microbial Communities, but since both have many other demanding commitments, it has been important to gather a strong research team to keep the ambitious time plan. The team who will be doing the grunt work consists of: • Senior research scientist Søren M. Karst: Lead Scientist with daily responsibility for the project • Postdoc Vibeke R. Jørgensen: Overall coordination of samples and lab work • Postdoc Andrew T. Giguere: Microbial diversity of soil bacteria converting nitrogen • PhD student Thomas B. N. Jensen: Upgrading lab workflows and data analysis • PhD student Emil A. Sørensen: Process development and analysis of eukaryotes • Research assistant Simon Knutsson: Upgrading lab workflows regarding DNA sequencing • MSc student Admir Murguz: Microbial diversity in city water and wastewater Field work On an EU level, there are 50 different defined types of nature or habitats from which the research group collects samples – such as forests, meadows, farmland, cities, parks, streams etc. – which goes to show how existing definitions and the work of public authorities can benefit the research group. Furthermore, samples are collected from different kinds of farmland and cities to cover as wide a range as possible. – Microflora Danica leans on existing research and the authorities’ management of nature. Luckily that means there is a lot of free data 1 MSO: Med Særlige Opgaver = with specific tasks 34 Microflora Danica – timeline Januar 2019 AAU receives a grant from the Poul Due Jensen Foundation April 2019 The project is officially launched August 2019 Recruitment is completed December 2019 Project design, agreements and upgrading of processes; 5001000 samples are analysed 2020-2021 Collection and analysis of 4-5000 samples yearly 2022 Analyses are completed, and results are published
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