Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, DTU
Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, DTU
DTU is one of the leading technical universities in Europe. Ranked no. 1 (2020) in the Nordic countries by the Leiden impact indicator on Proportion of Publications and in Top 10% in the World University Research Rankings (research multi-disciplinarity, research impact and research collaborative), DTU offers an excellent research environment. DTU has (in 2020 figures) around 13,000 students with 28 international MSc programs, 20 PhD Schools with 1453 PhD students enrolled. DTU consists of 18 departments, 6 research centres and 4 companies with a total of 5900 staff employed. DTU National Food Institute (DTU Food) is a research institute with around 300 staff focusing on public health in relation to human nutrition, food safety, food quality, food technology, environment and health. Activities include all aspects of food products throughout the entire food chain, from primary agricultural production through evaluating the impact on human health. Main disciplines are nutrition, chemistry, microbiology, technology, toxicology, allergology and epidemiology.
ALLPreT team members
Dr. Katrine Lindholm Bøgh
Dr. Katrine Lindholm Bøgh, will lead the research and training activities at DTU. Her group currently comprises 4 Senior Researchers, 2 Postdoc, 3 PhD Students, 3 Lab Technicians, 1 Animal Scientist, and an evolving number of graduate and post-graduate students. She has +15 years of experience in food allergy research, protein chemistry, animal models, immunological techniques and mechanistic studies. She has demonstrated her managerial and leadership skills through the organisation of several Training Schools and Congresses and by being the project leader of > 16 projects as grant holder, with a total portfolio of +50 MDKK. She has been teaching different Bachelor, Master and PhD courses. She will be principle supervisor of ESR2 and ESR10 and co-supervisor of ESR9. She will be the leader of WP5 Route of exposure and sensitization (Research).
Dr. Erwin Schoof
Dr. Erwin Schoof is an Associate Professor at the Cell Diversity Lab under DTU Bioengineering. He is the former head of the DTU Proteomics Core and has +10 years of running MS-based proteomics experiments. He was the first in Europe to demonstrate the ability to measure representative proteomes in single cells, and is pioneering the field of single-cell proteomics. Tapping on his expertise in MS-based proteomics, he will also co-supervise DC2 in their project.
Behnaz Shafie, PhD candidate
Behnaz Shafie is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and Doctoral Candidate 10 in the ALLPreT project. She acquired her bachelor’s degree in plant protection from Shahrood University, Shahrood, Iran, and her master’s degree in toxicology from Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran. Her previous working experience was in the laboratory of toxicology of the Food & Drug Administration of Iran for 4 years. Having always been curious and enthusiastic to learn about metabolic pathways and how food and external substances impact the human body motivated her to improve scientific knowledge in PhD. The DC10 project focuses on food allergy and in vivo prediction models. The main aim of this Ph.D. project is to optimize, standardize, and validate animal models for the prediction of de novo sensitization. During the journey of her Ph.D., she will have two external stays and secondments, one in ALK, Denmark, with the supervision of Dr. Shashank Gupta for 1 month and one at the Medical University of Vienna with the supervision of Dr. Michelle Epstein for 4 months. Through these collaborative endeavors, Behnaz Shafie aspires to make meaningful contributions to the scientific community and advance our understanding of allergic sensitization pathways in an in vivo model.
Sim Ray Yue, PhD candidate
Coming from Singapore, Sim Ray Yue is Doctoral Candidate 2 (DC2) at the Technical University of Denmark under the Research Group for Food Allergy. He obtained his Diploma in Molecular Biotechnology at Ngee Ann Polytechnic (Singapore), BSc (Hons) Food Science at Edge Hill University (England, UK), and MSc Advanced Food Safety at Queen’s University Belfast (Northern Ireland, UK). His portfolio includes work on UK food allergen recalls and in silico analysis of edible insects. As DC2, he will be developing the concept of threshold of allergen sensitisation. Information on consumption patterns in the Danish and Dutch population, allergenic and non-allergenic protein abundance, and allergenic potential in selected allergenic foods will be obtained. These will undergo data modelling to determine a putative threshold of allergic concern and enable a strategy on how a threshold of sensitisation can be applied in food safety assessment, especially with in silico models. To aid with this goal, he will be learning and applying relevant skills at two external stays in the Netherlands: 1 month at dsm-firmenich under Dr Mélina Galano, and 3 months at University Medical Center Utrecht under Dr. Kitty Verhoeckx.
Tue Christensen, Senior Adviser
Tue Christensen is a Senior Adviser at the Research Group for Nutrition, Sustainability, and Health Promotion under DTU Food. He has been involved in developing nutritional tools for food consumption patterns and food composition, both on a national level (DANSDA, Frida) and regional level (EUROFIR). With a huge contribution towards the dietary habits of people in Denmark and relevant experience across many food safety fields under his belt, he will co-supervise DC2 in their project.