Patrick Janssen

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My main interest lies in understanding fermentations related to food products. I have always been fascinated by the notion that microorganisms can have such a huge effect on the foods we eat. These can be either beneficial microbes that help making our diet more healthy, or spoilage microbes and pathogens which reduce shelf life of food materials. For better understanding of the role and activities of food associated micro-organisms, we apply a broad array of techniques.

The combination of techniques which we apply for investigating food fermentations depends on the actual research question. Analysis of the response of a complete community of microbes during the fermentations is relevant if new bacterial strains need to be introduced in the fermentation process. Analysis of the response of microbes at the single cell level can be done using the sophisticated FACS (fluorescence-activated cell sorter)-machine. The latter technique also allows us to analyze population heterogeneity of complex bacterial cultures.

My particular motivation comes from research projects in which we can explore new avenues together with our customers. Projects in which state-of-the-art research techniques and approaches deliver new functional benefits for food products which will be brought on the market by our customers.