Kristoffersen-lab
In the Kristoffersen-lab we study nucleic acids potential for making functional structures and for starting evolution from scratch.
Meet the team
Alumni
Biography
Emil Laust Kristoffersen
Assistant Professor
Aarhus University
emillk@inano.au.dk
Emil Laust Kristoffersen is a newly started group leader at the interdisciplinary nano science center (iNANO) and the department of Molecular biology and Genetics at Aarhus University (AU) in Denmark. His research group explores the properties of nucleic acids to make functional structures, particularly investigation how nucleic acids might initially have started the Darwinian evolution which led to the origins of life. To achieve this, the Kristoffersen lab uses advanced methodology such as cryogenic electron microscopy, single-molecule fluorescence, molecular design and directed evolution.
Previously, Emil did a postdoc with Phil Holliger at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK and worked with Victoria Birkedal and Ebbe S. Andersen at iNANO. Emil obtained his PhD from Aarhus University in 2016 working on design of nucleic acid nano sensors for enzyme detection.
The Science
How can Darwinian evolution start?
It is unclear how evolution started, but we know it did and since then drove the development of all the lifeforms we find today. Indeed, this innovative power of evolution has an unmatched potential for problem-solving but is limited by the chemical and physical properties of its molecules.
Today life uses both nucleic acids and proteins, and lately also rock, metal, alloys, electronics, and computer programs, to exist and to solve its problems. But it did not start like that. Nucleic acids are so far the only genetic polymers we know, having the potential to start the process of Darwinian evolution and life still relies on them. Importantly, nucleic acids not only include RNA and DNA, but other unnatural chemically modified polymers exist in the family as well, which has yet unexplored potential. We study these nucleic acids, natural as well as unnatural, with the aim of unlocking their full potential. With directed evolution, biochemical analysis and structural biology we make new functional nucleic acid molecules for resolving how life emerge, solving old problem in new ways, and improving biotechnology and medicine.
Find our work here:
News
Here we will update you on all the things we are doing in the Kristoffersen lab. Stay tuned..!
