Benjamin A. H. Jensen is a tenured Associate Professor in Nutritional Immunology, consultant, and biotech entrepreneur. He leads the Jensen Group at Department of Biomedical Sciences (BMI), where they, with a focus on barrier (dys)function, dissect how dietary components, gut microbial community structures and compartmentalized immunology synergizes to orchestrate chronic inflammation of temporal intensity. The Jensen Group develop and use experimental systems tailored to model human disease with unmet medical needs. He has a particular interest in host defense peptides (HDPs) and their influence on host-microbe mutualism at the onset, progression, and treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases. Despite a comprehensive publication portfolio, including top tiered journals such as Nature, Nature Metabolism, Nature Communications, Cell Metabolism, PNAS, Science Translational Medicine, GUT, Gut Microbes, and others, the main ambition is not to publish high impact per se, but rather to make sound and reproducible research. Hopefully, these efforts will eventually lead to novel discoveries for the greater good of society regardless of the immediate impact.

Benjamin Jensen received the prestigious Novo Nordisk Foundation Excellence Emerging Investigator Grant (2021) to establish his research group at BMI. He is has established spinout companies with successful license agreements and is scientific advisor for several nonprofit organizations.

Education

• 2016: PhD in Molecular Biomedicine, Thesis Title: Insulin Resistance: A Fine-Tuned Interplay Between Diet, Intestinal Microbes and Immunity; Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen
• 2013: MSc. Biochemistry, Major in Immunology, Thesis Title: Restoring Immune Competence in the Tumor Microenvironment; University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
• 2012: Diploma of Engineering in Biotechnology, Process Technology and Chemistry, Thesis title: Adenoviral vaccine vectors: Vector-encoded Interleukin-2, co-expressed alongside relevant antigen, proves to enhance the durability of  Ag-specific T-cells; University of Southern Denmark
• 2007: Laboratory Technician
• 1999: Zookeeper

Current positions

• 2023-present: Tenured Associate Professor gr. Leader, Nutritional Immunology, Jensen Group, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen.
• 2022-present: CSO, Mycobiotix Inc., Colorado, US. 
• 2021-present: CSO, Defensin Therapeutics ApS, Copenhagen, Denmark.  
• 2019-present: Cofounder and CEO, Aesculus Bio ApS, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Most relevant previous positions

• 2021-2023: Assistant Professor gr. Leader, Nutritional Immunology, Jensen Group, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen.
• 2020-2021: International Researcher and postdoc, Section of Human Genomics and Metagenomics in Metabolism, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Center for Basic Metabolic Research, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
• 2017-2020: Postdoc at the Phizer Research Chair ‘Pathogenesis of Insulin Resistance and Cardiometablic Complication’, Heart and Lung Institute, Axis of Cardiology, Faculty of Medicine, Laval University, Canada
• 2017-2021: Project Director, Heading a probiotic research project shared between University of Laval, Canada, and Novozymes A/S, One Health, Venture Team for Metabolic Health, Denmark
• 2016-2017: Postdoc, Laboratory of Genomics and Molecular Biomedicine, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
• 2015-2021: Scientific advisor. Defensin Therapeutics ApS, Denmark. 
• 2013-2016: PhD student, Laboratory of Genomics and Molecular Biomedicine, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
• 2011-2013: Research Assistant, Laboratories of Infectious Immunology and Experimental Virology, Department of International Health, Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
• 2006-2011: Laboratory Technician, Laboratories of Infectious Immunology and Experimental Virology, Department of International Health, Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Academic awards and honors 

• 2022: Scientific advisor to the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), Europe, Probiotic Task Force
• 2021: Emerging Excellence Investigator award, Novo Nordisk Foundation
• 2021: Chairman of ILSI, Europe, Probiotic Task Force’s Expert Group on ‘Mapping of Probiotics and their Activities in the Small Intestine Compared to the Colon’.
• 2021: Nominated to “Scientific Discovery of the Year”, magazine Québec Science, Canada. 
• 2021: Shared 1st authored study, Type 2 diabetes influences bacterial tissue compartmentalisation in human obesity, Featured as #BestofNatMetab2020, #6th most cited in Nature Metabolism, 2020. 
• 2020: Shared 1st authored study, Type 2 diabetes influences bacterial tissue compartmentalisation in human obesity, Featured on the frontpage of Nature Metabolism, March 2020
• 2018: Postdoc Fellowship for research abroad, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Novo Nordisk Foundation
• 2017: Postdoc Fellowship for research abroad, Lundbeck Foundation

Leadership, Supervision and Teaching experiences:

Extensive experience within academia, biotech and project development (leading several international cross-sectional collaborations); Co-inventor of two issued patents, 1 owned by Novozymes A/S and 1 jointly owned by UCPH and Oslo University, the latter patent with a signed license agreement for the American market; Cofounder and CEO of Aesculus Bio ApS; Main supervisor for 3 postdocs (1 industrial), 1 PhD student (3 as co-supervisor), several master and bachelor students, and hosted PhD interns from international collaborators; Lectured at both bachelor's, master’s and PhD classes within gastrointestinal (GI) physiology, pathology and pharmacology, blood diseases, and host-microbe-diet interactins; Course director of GI Physiology (Med. Students, UCPH); Completed courses in PhD Supervision, Research Management and Leaderships as well as Teaching at Higher Educations. Positive Supervisor Evaluation by ERC, during a postdoc’s MSCA application: ”The quality of the supervisor, especially for a relatively early-career PI, is excellent. The quality is further enhanced by the supervisor's strong expertise in the industry.” Part of the assessment committees for Bridge-Excellence Postdoc Fellowships 2022, and Canadian Insittute of Heath Research's (CIHR) fronstiers program, 2022/2023, and international PhD defences. Ad hoc revier for more than 25 journals.