Scientific Committee
In the process developing the program Tekna collaborates with key personnel working in the field of marine biotechnology and functional metagenomics. The members of the technical committee possess first-hand knowledge and experience within the topic that trust the quality of the content.
Members of the 2027 Program:
Jeanette Hammer Andersen
Professor, UiT, the Arctic University of Norway
Jeanette Hammer Andersen is a professor at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway. Since 2005, she has led Marbio, a research group specializing in analyzing and identifying natural compounds from marine organisms, Marbio has discovered several bioactive compounds, some of which are under further development. She is also the CEO and co-founder of KinSea Lead Discovery AS, a biotech company established in 2022. KinSea develops marine-based drugs, including a project targeting blood cancer (AML) and another exploring treatments for autoimmune diseases.
Peik Haugen
Professor and Head of Department of Dep. of chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, UiT, the Arctic University of Norway
Peik Haugen is Professor at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, where he works within marine biotechnology and bioinformatics. His research spans Arctic microbial resources, bacterial genomics, and discovery of novel cold-active biocatalysts relevant for sustainable biotechnology and aquaculture applications.
Teppo Rämä
Associate Professor, UiT, the Arctic university of Norway
Teppo Rämä is an associate professor at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. He is a biologist with specialization in fungal biodiversity and ecology in the marine environment of the North. He uses microbial cultures and culture-independent approaches such as genomics to study the biology of marine fungi and their potential for biotechnological applications, such as new antibiotics.
Espen Holst Hansen
Researcher, UiT, the Arctic University of Norway
Espen Holst Hansen is a professor at Marbio, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, specializing in marine bioprospecting and natural product chemistry. His work focuses on discovering bioactive compounds from Arctic marine organisms for pharmaceutical and biotechnological applications.
Alexander Wentzel
Senior research scientist, SINTEF Industry (Norway)
Dr. Alexander Wentzel works as a Senior research scientist in the Research group for Environmental Biotechnology at the Department of Biotechnology and Nanomedicine at SINTEF Industry in Trondheim, Norway.
His main scientific interests lies within studying microbial biodiversity in nature and exploiting its genetic potential for the discovery and development of new bioactive compounds and biocatalysts with a wide range of applications. In addition, his work covers the development and use of microbial cell factories in industrial biotechnology processes, pharmaceutical R&D, and new biotech-based solutions for the circular bioeconomy, at the Norwegian national and international level.
