I have a bachelor in Chemistry and a master in Biotechnology from Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). In my master thesis I produced, purified and biochemically characterized three LPMOs (lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases) active on cellulose.
I am currently in my fourth and last year of a PhD-project at the Department of Biotechnology and Food Science at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), where I am researching alginate epimerases from Azotobacter vinelandii. I am interested in the mechanism behind how these enzymes are changing the polysaccharide alginate. I study the enzyme-substrate interactions, mechanism and mode of action through mutational studies and biochemical and biophysical analysis. Alginate is a biopolymer from brown algae with useful physical and chemical properties. It has a lot of applications in various industries, especially medicine and food, and using enzymes industrially to enhance the value of extracted alginate is of great interest. My PhD is part of the FRIMEDBIO project “Nature’s Creation of non-Random Structures: Molecular Mechanisms for Processivity and Specificity of Polysaccharide Modifying Enzymes”.
I am also the student representative from Trondheim in the Biocat board.
Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have questions about my project, or if there are things you want me to address in the board meetings.
