Ate Jaarsma

Based at @voltcenter.bsky.social you will pioneer research into VOC production & consumption by microorganisms living on ice. You will combine field and incubation experiments, advanced mass spectrometry, and molecular sequencing.

employment.ku.dk/phd?show=165...
Deadline 15 November 2025.

🚨BSc/MSc project opportunities at NIOO-KNAW!

Want to work with unique microbial isolates and lake water samples from Greenland? Projects available:
🔹 Cultivation of methane-oxidising bacteria and associated microbes
🔹 Incubation experiments with glacier dust & DOC

See links in comments below!

Give our new project account a follow to stay up-to-date with the consortiums progress!

Frontiers | The encoded and expressed biosynthetic potential of Greenland Ice Sheet microbes Supraglacial habitats of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) harbor active microbial communities. Microbes produce a plethora of natural products, which hold grea...

6/6
🔗 Check out the full paper here: www.frontiersin.org/journals/mic...
This research was part of the DEEP PURPLE project (deeppurple-ercsyg.eu), and funded by @erc.europa.eu. @au.dk
Photo credit: Shunan Feng

5/6
These results shed light on the ecological function of these BGCs for microbial adaptation, competition, and ecosystem functioning, while the novelty of the gene clusters points toward untapped biotechnological potential from this threatened microbial habitat.

4/6
🔍 Key findings:
• Novel BGCs are expressed on the melting Greenland Ice Sheet
• Expression differs between habitats: eukaryotic BGCs dominate glacier ice; prokaryotic BGCs dominate cryoconite
• Likely producers include key ecosystem engineers like glacier ice algae and cyanobacteria

3/6
Using metatranscriptomics, we show for the first time that many of the encoded BGCs are expressed in situ during the melt season. Many are completely novel, and highly expressed clusters include those for carotenoids, beta-lactones, terpenes, and modified peptides.

2/6
These natural products may help microbes cope with UV radiation, nutrient scarcity, and microbial competition, but in situ expression data is often lacking. The question remains; do microbes use their BGCs in their daily life, on the ice surface and in cryoconite holes?

1/6
🧊 My last PhD paper is out!
We explored what microbes on the Greenland Ice Sheet are actually doing with their biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), the genetic blueprints for producing natural products.

Back in the Arctic for fieldwork! This time for the CLIMET project, studying methane cycling in Greenland lakes 🦠

I'm grateful for the opportunity to continue working on environmental microbiology in the context of climate change, and thrilled to be heading back to the Arctic this summer!

Excited to share that I’ll soon start as a postdoc at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW)!

As part of the CLIMET project, I will investigate microbial methane consumption in Greenlandic lakes.

@niooknaw.bsky.social

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I'm looking for a post doc position!
I want to contribute to research that helps solve the big problems the world faces, and bring experience in environmental microbiology in extreme environments, natural product research, synthetic and molecular biology.
Welcome to share!