The Danisco Foundation Awards Two Student Grants

Food and biotech students at the universities under the Centre for Advanced Food Studies can apply to the Danisco Foundation for grants, and this year’s grants go to Mette Søndergaard Schmedes and Thomas Trolle.

4/14/2011 --- Food and biotech students at the universities under the Centre for Advanced Food Studies can apply to the Danisco Foundation for grants, and this year’s grants go to Mette Søndergaard Schmedes and Thomas Trolle.

The grants are intended to help the students complete their theses in the best way possible. Mette is doing her master's degree in molecular nutrition and food technology at Aarhus University, and Thomas is doing his master's degree in system biology at the Technical University of Denmark.

Mette's thesis focuses on the effect of probiotics by conducting a human intervention study through NMR-based metabonomics. The purpose of the study is to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms by which the intake of probiotics affects the health status of the host. Mette is awarded a study grant of DKK 50,000.

Thomas’ thesis involves a comparative analysis of enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) genome sequences. EAEC are bacteria that cause human intestinal infections and are associated with persistent diarrhoea especially in children. Thomas is awarded a travel grant of DKK 20,000.

For Danisco, it is important to maintain close contact with academia and other areas relevant to our industry. It is therefore relevant to support both of these projects which deal with areas of great relevance to Danisco.