Ingolf Nes

Professor in biotechnology at the Dept. Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Science. I am heading "Laboratory of microbial gene technology and food microbiology" that consists of approximately 20 members (staff members, technicians,and students). During the last 20 years my research has been focused on lactica acid bacteria with a focus on bacteriocins of lactic acid bacteria.These studies have included purification and chemical and genetic characterization of such peptides followed by biosynthesis and regulation of biosynthesis through a quorum sensing mechanism. Structure, mode of action and receptor studies have been an important part of my research and recently we showed that the classIIa and other one-peptid bacteriocins actually are using the ManCD that is part of the man-PTS system, as receptors. Modern genomic tools (genomic DNNA microarrays) are now used in both CGH and transcriptome analysis of Enterococcus faecalis and Lactobacillus sake. In our studying of stress responses and mutants, the array technology has been very valuable for looking into the transcriptional responses of such manipulations and to understand the mechanisms of adaptation. Proteomic techiques (2-D gel and MS analysis) are now also used in such studies.