News from Department of Science and Environment

Professor Lone Simonsen has managed to explain complicated new knowledge about the Covid pandemic in a manner that is comprehensible and relevant to Danes at a critical time. For her efforts, the professor will be honoured with the Research Communication Prize 2021.

A new research centre at Roskilde University, the PandemiX Center, will explore the dynamics and impact of pandemics.

A new scientific report prepared for the Statens Serum Institut concludes that systematic use of rapid tests for COVID-19 twice a week at, for example, a workplace or school, could reduce new cases of infection by 36-55%. The conclusions are based on a scenario where rapid tests are assumed to be half as sensitive as traditional PCR tests and that everyone in the group is tested.

In new results, scientists from Roskilde University have shown that individual chemical components of cannabis have an effective impact on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The results confirm existing research and add crucial new knowledge on how active molecules from the cannabis plant can be applied in combination with a number of traditional antibiotics currently used to treat MRSA in humans. The results could lay the groundwork for the development of new types of medicine that could reduce consumption of conventional antibiotics and curb the growth of antibiotic resistance.

Thomas Stiehl will be leading the research project that receives a fellowship of 10 million DKK from The Lundbeck Foundation. The project runs 5 years from January 1st, 2021.

Chemist Biljana Mojsoska and molecular biologist Håvard Jenssen from Roskilde University have in collaboration with international research colleagues developed and tested new antimicrobial drugs that can be used as an alternative to antibiotics in the fight against the infectious disease tuberculosis. The mycobacteria that triggers tuberculosis develops resistance to more and more known antibiotics.

Since January 2020 the ongoing Corona pandemic has thrown the world into a deep health crisis. The Carlsberg Foundation therefore grants DKK 10 million to a new Semper Ardens project for the development of mathematical models to predict the potential development of future epidemics. Professor Lone Simonsen at Roskilde University will lead this Semper Ardens project.

Mathematicians at Roskilde University, in collaboration with hematologists at Zealand University Hospital, have developed mathematical models for how normal blood production, development of blood cancer and inflammation mutually affect each other. In synergy with blood samples from the individual patient, the models can provide a guide for more effective, individualised cancer treatment.

Children and young people from all over Denmark are helping Roskilde University’s Kristian Syberg to map plastic pollution in Denmark. It will provide a unique dataset that will make us wiser vis-à-vis one of the planet’s biggest environmental challenges.

30-year-old Fatima AlZahra’a Alatraktchi is already a well-known name in the research world for her work on detecting very early signs of disease in humans. Her research has now led her to RUC, where she looks forward to working with researchers outside her own field of expertise.