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Project

Sabbatical Leen Van Campenhout: Consolidating a relatively new research line and going digital in my education

From my background in food microbiology, I started in 2014 a new line of research within my research group Lab4Food, established around industrially bred insects for food, animal feed and other applications. We study the dynamics of the microbial community and microbiological safety during the breeding and processing of insects. Since the start I have supervised doctoral students in several lines of research within this topic and I was / am coordinator of various collective and bilateral projects with insect, animal feed and food industry. Since the insect sector is still young and since in that world there is little knowledge of food microbiology, I have numerous applied issues from my background. During my Sabbath period I want to gain more fundamental and in-depth knowledge by studying topics in disciplines that touch my research, such as entomology, in particular diseases and insect immunity, and microbial ecology including (ever-evolving) sequencing methods and bioinformatics. I am strongly convinced that a thorough study in those domains will provide new insights  for the insect sector and this inspiration will deliver new, multidisciplinary projects. I would also like to take advantage of the Sabbath period to strengthen my international research network and look for formal cooperation possibilities with existing and new international contacts. Specifically, for example, I would like the explore possibilities for formal collaboration with Prof. dr. J. Eilenberg (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) and Dr. Maricel Krugel (University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, with a inbound mobility already realized under the 'preferential partnership agreement of KU Leuven with SU). Besides that I have other international contacts that I see potential for formal cooperation.

Date:1 Sep 2020 →  31 Aug 2021
Keywords:insect sector, microbiology, blended learning
Disciplines:Food microbiology, Veterinary microbiology, Invertebrate biology