Talk 2: The sustainable alternative to rodenticides – supporting safe rat sex

Kenneth Kongstad

TriptoBIO ApS, Ole Maaløesvej 3, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark, kenneth@triptobio.com

ABSTRACT

Nature has a proven track record for producing bioactive small molecules, relevant for e.g., the pharmaceutical, agricultural, and cosmetic sectors. Sustainability is an increasingly important aspect of bioprospecting as the more specialized metabolites produced by nature holds a potential for more targeted bioactivities, leading to less environmental impact due to unspecific activities. However, while Nature is a promising source of sustainable chemistry, it is also sensitive to the extensive sourcing of biomass needed for commercial production of bioactive small molecules. In this presentation, examples of how natural products can be commercialized as alternatives to replace environmentally unfriendly compounds are given. With emphasis on our work at TriptoBIO on promoting safe rat sex through a sustainable alternative to current rodenticides, examples will be presented of how stable and scalable production with low environmental footprint can be obtained through synthetic biology.

SHORT BIO

Since November 2022, Kenneth Kongstad has been COO and Head of Research and Development at TriptoBIO. With a MSc degree from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) focused on microbial natural products, he joined a DTU spinout startup company, MycoTeQ as research scientist in 2008. He received a PhD degree from the Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology in 2012 on his work on natural product chemistry and was appointed Associate Professor within Microbial Natural Products in 2020. In 2021, Kenneth joined LEO Pharma as late-stage API senior analytical scientist. Kenneth has published 60 papers in international peer reviewed journals, 2 patents, and 1 book chapter. He has successfully supervised 10 PhD students and was awarded teacher of the year 2019 for his undergraduate and postgraduate teaching at the School of Pharmacy.