Lene Lange

Lene Lange

Bioresource Vision Chair
Professor (f), Dr. Scient. et PhD, CEO, LL-BioEconomy, Research & Advisory

Career Path

Professional career includes Research Director position in both private industry and academia. After PhD & post doc position at University of Copenhagen, DANIDA Research Institute (1978-86). 1986-2007, R&D Novo, Novo Nordisk, Novozymes A/S, finishing in top research career position (NZ Director of Research, in Molecular Biotechnology). Professor (adj), University of Copenhagen, 2000-2010. 01.02.07 back in academia, as Head of Institute of Biology, University of Copenhagen, 2006-2008; from 01.09.08, Dean of Research and Professor in Biotechnology, Aalborg University. Campus director, AAU-Cph 2009-2013; Director of Research, Aalborg University 2012-2015. Professor and research leader, Technical University of Denmark 2015-2018. Founder & Owner of own company, “BioEconomy, Research & Advisory” 2018-

Activities, LL-BioEconomy, Research & Advisory, Denmark: SME Partner to Danish, Nordic, European & International research projects. Member of Scientific Committee of CBE-JU, advisory to EU Commission. Member of Danish Bioeconomy Panel, advisory to the Danish Government. Member of Reference committee (Agriculture, Food and Bioeconomy) to Ministry of Research, Member of advisory board for World Wildlife Foundation, member of Board of Next Step (etc).

Publications, in summary, 1973–2024

In all approx. 300 peer reviewed papers, books, monographs and several patents. In all >8.065 citations; of these, >4915 after 2020. H-index 41. i10 Index 139/77 (Google Scholar).

Current Research

Mycology: Enzyme discovery for improved biomass conversion. Focus: Generating value from crop residues and from agricultural, industrial and marine processing side-streams. Inventor of peptide- based functional annotation of enzyme proteins, an on-line fast-track discovery of new proteins and peptides, predicting function directly from sequence, based on identifying and using conserved, unique peptide patterns (CUPP, Conserved Unique Peptide Patterns). Developing use of such peptide based functional annotation of metagenomic level, predicting the function of microbiomes. Elucidating and mining the fungal secretome composition for improved biomass conversion. Enzyme discovery from ancient, early lineage fungi and discovery of composition of the interaction-secretomes in Nature´s biomass-conversion hot spots. Use of newly discovered enzymes for converting agro-industrial side-streams into delicious food and functional materials. Combining art and technology for upgrading and beautifying out-sorted textiles. All focused on and relevant for climate change mitigation, improved circularity for responsible use of biological resources, and efforts and awareness building for the importance of knowledge-sharing and international collaboration for a more sustainable world.

Advisory roles, International, European, Nordic and Danish current Bioeconomy-relevant portfolio Recent and current positions: Vice Chair for Scientific Committee for BBI-JU 2014-2021, a 3.7 billion Euro program; now (2022-) Scientific Committee for Circular Biobased Europe, advisory to EU Commission. Member of the Danish Bioeconomy Panel I, II and III (2023-), advisory to the Danish Government. Member of Scientific Committee for WWF Denmark (2002-). Member Scientific Committee for the Nordic Bioeconomy panel, advisory to the Nordic Council of Ministers, and to Icelandic chairmanship. Member of Food Think Tank “Frej”; and. International Advisory Board of MIRRI, European Culture Collections. Member of the Reference Group for Bioeconomy, Food, Agriculture and Natural resources for the Ministry of Research and Education, Denmark. Member of International Scientific Committee for European Conference for Fungal Genetics. Newly (2023) appointed member of World BioEconomy Circle and of the steering group for International Bioeconomy Association.

Advisory Functions to organizations and board positions in private and public sector

Danish National Bioeconomy Panel; Green Innovation Forum; 3F Green Think Tank; Board of SEGES A/S; Board of COWI Foundation; Danida External Grant Committee; Board of Madkulturen; Scientific Committee of Danish WWF; Board member of Experimentarium. Over the last >25 years served as member and in chairmanship roles of advisory research committees and science councils for in all 7 Danish ministries: Ministry of Food and Agriculture (Member of the National Bioeconomy Panel); Ministry of Environment (Danced, Board Chair; Rådgivende udvalg for Miljøforskning; Pesticidforskningsrådet); Ministry of Energy (REFU), Ministry of Science and Technology (SJVF, Forskningsforum, DSF Board (Vice chair); Ministry of Foreign Affairs (RUF, FFU); Ministry of Food and Agriculture (RUFF, Vice chair); Ministry of Education (FUR); Ministry of Consumer Affairs. ATV Academy member since 1988. Member of Committee of Industrial PhD Fellowship Programme from 1994- 2000. Chairmanship for ATV Gr2. Currently, ATV Steering group, Sustainable Technologies.

Nordic Advisory roles and experience (selected items):

President for ScanBalt Academy. Member of BIONÆR, Norwegian Research Council; Project Chair for the NCM project “Test centers for green energy solutions”; Member of Board of University of Stavanger; Chair of NordForsk Board. International member of the Research Council for Functional Genomics, FUGE. Chair of the Norwegian Expert Panel advising on future Importance of Bioprospecting. CSO for Barentzymes start-up company, 2014-2015. Member of the Nordic Bioeconomy Panel; member, NCM, Icelandic Chairmanship, Nordmar Biorefinery. Member, Norway Research Council, Bioscience Evaluation Panel (2023).

International Experience, Advisory roles for EU (selected items):

Vice chair of Scientific committee of BBI JU, Bio-Based Industries, a Public Private Partnership, EU Joint Undertaking; a 3.7 billion Euro program. Now SC of CBE (2022). Vice chair for the Advisory Group to the Commission for Food, Agriculture, Fishery, Forestry and Biotechnology, FP7. Chair of Expert Panel on Skills needs in Europe for the Biobased Economy; Member of the Expert Panel for evaluation of the 6th Framework Program; Member of expert panel for evaluating the EU Bioeconomy Strategy 2012. Appointed member, French National Research Agency.

International Advisory Boards, Chairmanships (selected items only)

Chairman of the International Advisory Board of BIOTEC, Thai National Research Institute of Biotechnology; Chairman for the Board of Trustees for the International Wheat and Maize research Institute, CIMMYT, Mexico (with global presence and mandate for wheat and maize research). Programme Chair, the Board of Trustees for International Rice Research Institute, IRRI, the Philippines, global presence and global mandate for rice research. ExCo-member of Borlaug Global Rust Initiative BGRI; IAB member of NSTDA, advising Thai government, Science and Technology; Member of the Board of Sino Danish Center, SDC; member of the board of BSU, Danish Universities common initiative to Building Stronger Universities in Africa; Member of the Danish MOST steering group, Indo-Danish Biotech MoU collaboration. Chairman for Intl. Advisory Board, U-Protein Research Consortium.