Bente Vestergaard

Short presentation

I am the group leader of the BioSAXS group, dept. Drug Design and Pharmacology, University of Copenhagen, and the director of the Lundbeck Foundation Initiative on Integrative Structural Biology, BRAINSTRUC (http://www.brainstruc.ku.dk). I have focused on structural biology throughout my carreer. I was trained in macromolecular X-ray crystallography and have experience with cryo electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and X-ray fiber diffraction. Since 2004 I have specialized in small angle X-ray scattering on proteins in solution and have established the first Scandinavian bioSAXS group at the University of Copenhagen. In my group, we focus on structural characterisation of complex pharmaceutically relevant protein solutions. We analyze heterogeneous protein systems, and particularly specialize in characterisation of fibrillating proteins. We have developed novel methods for structural analysis of fibrillating systems, applying advanced decomposition and multidisciplinary characterisation.

Primary fields of research

BioSAXS

Structural Analysis of Protein Fibrillation

Structural Biology

Teaching

National Teaching: course responsible for 'Advances in Medicinal Chemistry Research'. Lecturer and supervisor of practicals on 'Medicinal and Biostructural Chemistry'.

International Teaching: Co-organizer (together with my close colleague prof. Lise Arleth) of the Copenhagen BioSAS practial courses on biomacromolecular solution scattering. The courses aim at international young researchers (PhD, postdoc level) and is a collaboration with the group of EMBL group leader Dmitri Svergun and MAX-lab SAXS beamline (I911-4). I am returning teacher on the EMBL-Hamburg EMBO BioSAS courses, and (more recently) the ESRF Grenoble EMBO BioSAS course.

Knowledge of languages

Danish (mother tongue)

English (fluent)

French (basic)

Dutch (basic)

German (basic)