Louise von Gersdorff Jørgensen

Short presentation

I work on the fish immune system. Primarily, I work with a parasite disease, called white spot disease, caused by a protozoan Ichthyophthirius multifiliis and will in an ongoing project try to develop a vaccine against this pathogen. In addition, I work with zebrafish (Danio rerio) and will try to discover which primary organs parasite antigens first are transported to in order to elucidate the early reactive centres of the immune system.  

I am a biologist from the University of Copenhagen and have been working with the fish immune system and related parasite diseases since November 2005. I got my PhD degree in 2011 and am at moment working as a postdoc on my own project until 2016.

CV

Education

2014                (pre-) leader course "women, career and UCPH", University of Copenhagen.

2012-2014       course "Higher Education Teaching", University of Copenhagen

2007-2011       PhD student at the Laboratory of Aquatic Pathobiology, University of Copenhagen

                        Title “Immunity against Ichthyophthirius multifiliis in rainbow trout”. Main supervisor,

                        Professor Kurt Buchmann. Degree obtained the 1st of November 2011.

1997-2003          Master of Science degree in Biology, Mandahl-Barth Research Center for Biodiversity

                           and Health, DBL - Institute for Health Research and Development. Main supervisor,

                           Professor Thomas Krogsgaard Kristensen. This task included one month of fieldwork

                           in Tanzania, Africa.

Professional experience                                                                            

2015-2016       Assistant professor at the Laboratory of Aquatic Pathobiology, University of

                        Copenhagen (1. jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2016).

2012-2015       Postdoc at theLaboratory of Aquatic Pathobiology, University of Copenhagen.

2005-2007       Scientific Research assistant at the Laboratory of Aquatic Pathobiology, University of

& 2011-2012  Copenhagen               

Leave

2008-2009       Maternity leave 1. August 2008-5. May 2009.

Research related stays abroad

2013                May-July, I worked in Professor Oriol Sunyers laboratory at the University of

                        Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The stay resulted in a paper published in Nature

                        communications.

Grants                                                                                                                 

2012-2016       The Danish Council for Independent Research – Technology and Production Sciences (3,205,315 DKK, $577.701)

                        I received funding for my own project entitled “A novel anti-parasitic vaccine using killed bacterial vectors for the introduction of parasite antigens in fish”, which resulted in 4 published peer review papers, one submitted peer review paper and one patent application.

2002                Det Danske Pasteur-Selskab (10,500 DKK)

Patents

2016                Title: Vaccination targeting Ichthyophthirius multifiliis. Reference number: 20824EP00.

                        I am co-inventor of this invention disclosed in a priority founding European patent                        application filed on 17 June 2016 by Evaxion Biotech ApS.

Scientific focus areas

• Immunology
• Vaccinology
• Fish Diseases
• Biotechnology
• Parasitology
• Rainbow trout and zebrafish
• In vivo imaging (confocal microscopy)

International relations

                  As a part of DAFINET (http://www.dafinet.dk), I have obtained a wide international                    network. I have been part of several international projects such as Imaquanim                                (http://tinyurl.com/hwfxfk8), TargetFish (http://targetfish.eu) and Parafish Control                        (http://www.parafishcontrol.eu). Besides all the scientific work that has resulted from                   these collaborations, using this network I am able to attract the best international                                    researchers within our field of expertise.

Local collaborations

2014-16        I have a fruitful collaboration with Professor Ali Salanti from the Centre of Medical                       Parasitology, University of Copenhagen on the development of novel fish vaccines.

                        I am collaborating with Thomas Rades and Anette Müllertz from the Department of                     Pharmacy, University of Copenhagen on the use of zebrafish as a model system for                      uptake and distribution of novel anaesthetics and formulations.

                        I am also collaborating with Nina Cedergreen from the Section for Environmental               Chemistry and Physics, University of Copenhagen on the use of zebrafish as a model for                    toxicology studies.

                        I have a solid collaboration with the Biotech company Evaxion with whom I have                          applied for a patent.

Supervision

2016                Main supervisor for a veterinary student (Sandra Jeberg), who delivered a thesis with the             title "Effect of air exposure stress challenge on cortisol production and subsequent                         immune gene expression using zebrafish (Danio rerio) and rainbow trout                                          (Oncorhynchus mykiss) as animal models"

2016                Co-supervisor for Therese Birgitte Christoffersen, who delivered a thesis with the title                  "Immunrespons mod Ichthyophthirius multifiliis infektion i zebrafisk (Danio rerio) -                      vurderet ved qPCR og histologi.

2015            Main supervisor for a master of parasitology student (Jonas Steenholdt Sørensen), who                delivered a thesis with the title "Immune responses of rainbow trout Oncorhynchus                       mykiss to the teleost parasite Ichthyophthirius multifiliis" and is now applying for a PhD.

Committee work

                        Member of a PhD evaluation committee (2015), University of Tasmania, Australia

Teaching

I have for the last 6 years been teaching fish immunology, parasitology, vaccinology and zebrafish as a model organism at bachelor and master level.

Please see an overview of my teaching below:

2016                Invited to teach about parasites on Danish production fish at a Summer school at the                     Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.

2012-2016       Once a year I have been responsible for 3 hours of teaching on fish diseases and                             productions plus a field trip to an eel farm or the Blue Planet on the course "Health and                welfare"

2010-2016       I have been a guest teacher every year at the course Aquaculture and Fish Diseases

2015                Responsible for 3 hours teaching on aquatic zoonoses on the course "Herd Health and                  Public Health

                        I have been a guest teacher on the courses:

2015                Animal Life and Function

                        Forsøgsdyrskundskab

2014                Animal parasitology

2013                A lecture abour aquaculture at "Åbent Hus"

Animal science – sundhed og velfærd

2012                Health and welfare     

                        Herd health and Public Health

                        Animal parasitology

Publications                                                                                                                                                                                   

18 Peer review publications (1 paper in PNAS - impact factor 9,8; 1 paper in Nature                                                         Communications - impact factor 11,47)

            6 without my PhD supervisor

            8 as first author

            1 as last author

            2 as single author

21 Conference abstracts

5 Popular scientific publications

4 Posters

Positions of trust

                        I have reviewed papers from journals such as Fish and Shellfish Immunology

& PlosOne

                        I am on the editorial board in the Turkish journal of zoology

Invited talks

2015                Title:Antigen uptake in zebrafish (Danio rerio). Dafinet and profish workshop:                             Pathogen - host interactions and vaccine effects. November 17-18, Copenhagen,                             Denmark. 60 people participated from 10 different countries

2014                Title: A search for new vaccine candidates in Ichthyophthirius multifiliis. Dafinet

   and Targetfish Fp7 workshop. Fish models in research, November 11-13,

   Copenhagen, Denmark. 70 people participated from 10 different countries.