The Microbiome Ecosystem in Medicon Valley: Connecting Science, Industry and Regulation

The microbiome holds enormous promise – but realizing its potential requires more than great science.

This full-day seminar invites microbiome researchers and companies in Medicon Valley to step back and look at the bigger picture.

By bringing together researchers, companies, hospitals and ecosystem actors from across Medicon Valley we will explore the translational potential of microbiome research. We will examine how science, technology, regulation and sector perspectives intersect across multiple application areas.

Together, we will discuss how scientific advances meet regulatory realities, how different sectors can complement each other, and what it will take to move the microbiome field forward in a coordinated and impactful way. We will discuss where the field stands today, what the key bottlenecks are, and how we can move the microbiome field forward together.

The day is designed to foster dialogue, shared understanding, and new collaborations across the Medicon Valley microbiome ecosystem. Join us for a day of insight, exchange and ecosystem building.

Date: Friday 20th March 2026
Time: 9:00 – 15:00
Venue: Medicon Valley Alliance, HUB 2, Arne Jacobsens Allé 15, 2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark – Auditorium

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Program

Speakers

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	Adam Baker is the Director of Science at Future Labs, Novonesis.He leads the future lab incubator, emphasizing deep phenotyping and multiomics with a focus on microbiome and data science. Before joining Novonesis and Chr Hansen, he served as Vice President of Diagnostic Product Development at Exiqon A/S in Denmark and Head of New Technologies at deCODE Genetics in Iceland. In these positions, he concentrated on advancing personalized medicine and the diagnostic and companion treatment of complex diseases and cancer. He also held research roles in Vancouver, Canada, and at Boehringer Ingelheim in Vienna, Austria. He earned a PhD in Human Medical Genetics from the Institute for Molecular Pathology in Austria.
	Nikolaj Sørensen is VP, Operational Excellence and Compliance at Cmbio. He has a PhD in microbial ecology from the University of Copenhagen. He has worked with microbiomics for over 10 years and has experience working in all parts of the analytical pipeline, including study design, laboratory work, bioinformatics, statistics, and biological interpretation.Currently, Nikolaj Sørensen is focusing on facilitating the use of microbiomics in clinical trials, by providing QA support during clinical trials and by attempting to shape industry standards and regulators.
	Alberto Santos is Scientific Director at BRIGHT (DTU), where he leads the Informatics Platform, and Group Lead at DTU Health Tech. He holds a PhD in Computational Biology from the University of Copenhagen and has worked across academia and industry, including roles at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, Oxford’s Big Data Institute, KU’s Center for Health Data Science, and Boehringer Ingelheim. His research bridges computational biology, data science, and translational research, with a focus on Knowledge Graphs and Graph Machine Learning for complex multi-omics data.
	Lisette J. A. Kogelman is a senior researcher at the Translational Research Centre at Rigshospitalet Glostrup and at the Dept. of Gynaecology and Obstetrics at Hvidovre Hospital. Her research focuses on women’s health, integrating multi-omics data to understand menstrual cycle characteristics, biological variation, and disease mechanisms in conditions such as migraine and endometriosis. She is junior co-lead of the CyclOme project, combining daily symptom tracking with deep molecular profiling during the menstrual cycle.
	Andreas Koulouktsis is a postdoctoral researcher at the DTU National Food Institute and the NNF Microbiome Health Initiative, where his research aims to bridge fundamental microbiome science with translational strategies to improve cardiometabolic health. He has a background in studying microbial metabolism and reorienting it toward therapeutic applications in metabolic diseases, particularly through the development of engineered biotherapeutics.
	Johan Westman is a Principal Scientist at Novonesis, specializing in the development of production processes for living active bacteria, with a strong focus on probiotics. With over a decade of experience in industrial biotechnology, he combines deep scientific expertise with practical innovation to advance microbial solutions for health and nutrition. Johan holds a Ph.D. in Biosciences from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.
	Karl Alex Hedin is CSO and Co-founder of 1stBiome. He holds a PhD from Morten Sommer’s lab at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability (DTU). His work focuses on understanding and engineering microbial systems. At 1stBiome, he is developing next-generation probiotics by combining advanced microbiology, genetic engineering, and deep biological insight to create scalable, affordable solutions for improving metabolic health and longevity.
	Daniel Hovel Hansen is CEO and Co-Founder of Mastitia and seasoned expert in global commercialization of microbial solutions for human health. In addition to bringing his own product to market, he supports microbiome companies in shaping commercial strategies and translating scientific innovation into market success.
Panelists:
	Professor Denise Kelly joined Seventure Partners in 2015 as an Investment Advisor, focusing on Human Microbiome investments in Europe and the USA. Before that, she led a research team at the University of Aberdeen’s Rowett Institute for over 20 years, specializing in gut microbiology and immunology. Denise also founded GT Biologics Ltd, pioneering Microbiome-based Therapies. She holds a BSc and PhD from Queen’s University, Belfast, and is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Aberdeen, with numerous patents and collaborative projects in her portfolio.
	Lionel Mavoungou is CMC Director at VCLS, guiding developers across the full medicinal product lifecycle. He specializes in building robust CMC and manufacturing strategies to translate products from early research through clinical development. As lead for Microbiome CMC at VCLS, he works with a range of microbiome products including LBPs, FMT, and foods. Lionel also supports regulatory submissions and agency consultations in both the EU and the US.
	Jenny Landberg Clementsonis a European Patent Attorney at HØIBERG, where she provides patent related counselling to companies and universities, primarily within the fields of biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals. Jenny holds an MSc Eng in Biotechnology and completed her PhD at the Technical University of Denmark, focusing on genetic and metabolic engineering of yeast and bacteria.
	Robert Stanley Stephenson is a Senior Scientific Manager within Biomedical Research at the Novo Nordisk Foundation, where he works together with researchers and clinicians to build fundamental and translational research initiatives. Of note, he has been involved in the development of the Microbiome Health Initiative (MHI), which strives to develop novel microbiome-based solutions for CMD prevention and treatment. He was previously Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham Medical School, UK, and holds a BSc and PhD from the University of Liverpool, UK.

Deadline for registration is 18th March 

The Network

The MVA Microbiome Network is a professional network for Medicon Valley Alliance members from industry, academia and health care sector with interest in the Microbiome field, including drug discovery, nutrition and probiotic development. Joining the network is free of charge but is limited to Medicon Valley Alliance members. However, non-member organizations and companies are welcome to attend one network event to evaluate if joining the network is relevant. If so, becoming a member of Medicon Valley Alliance will automatically allow you to join the microbiome network.

For more information please contact Katrine Brems Olsen kbo@mva.org

Organized by	Lunch sponsor