Sylvester Holt

Sylvester Holt

Assistant professor, tenure track, Tenure Track Assistant Professor

Member of:

    I am a biochemist that has dedicated much of my career to studying aroma generation by enzymes and yeasts. I have focused on the quantitative genetics of flavor traits, discovering new genes responsible for flavor release in yeast. I now mainly focus on aroma chemistry and use PTR-MS and GC-MS techniques for aroma profiling in foods and beverages. I emphasize on innovative and sustainable food processing methods, particularly how fermentation can improve the flavor of plant-based products and the implementation of PTR-MS in screening and dynamic experiments.

    Looking ahead, my focus is to gain an understanding of the dynamic release of aroma compounds from food products through online PTR-MS measurements. Specifically, I aim to design new collaborative projects within the dynamic aroma release of plant-based foods, incorporating elements of colloid chemistry, biochemistry, biophysics, and biotechnology.

    Currently, I serve as the principal investigator in three distinct projects:

    - Alcohop (DFF project, ~2 million DKK): This project focuses on identifying mixtures of hop aroma compounds that impart novel attributes and can be transferred to non-alcoholic beer.

    - MYCOFLAVOR (AgriFoodTure, Innovation Fund Denmark, ~10 million DKK): This collaborative project involves solid-state fermentation of side-streams to enhance the flavor of meat alternatives. The collaboration includes three universities (KU-FOOD, CBS, and DTU) and two companies (Circular Food Technology and Swan Neck Bio), aiming to develop innovative flavorful food products and generate knowledge in aroma development and fermentation.

    - MucusOR (Villum Experiment, ~2 million DKK): This project is focused on developing a microfluidics system that mimics the olfactory mucosa, containing yeast expressing human sensory receptors as biosensors for aroma compounds.

     

    Teaching responsibilities:

    - NFOK16002U Aroma - the Chemistry behind Odor (master’s course): I am the course coordinator, jointly responsible with Mikael Agerlin Petersen.

    - NFOB15008U Sensory Evaluation of Food (master’s course): This course explores the connection between instrumental analysis and sensory perception.

    - NFOB14014U Quality of Raw Food Materials (bachelor’s course): This course provides an introduction to aroma analysis using the specific example of fruits, emphasizing how aroma improves through ripening via ethylene signaling.

    - NFOK16006U Dairy Product Technology 2: The course covers aroma analysis of cheese and interpretation of GC-MS lab results by the students.

     

    Supervision:

    Since starting as a tenure-track assistant professor in flavor chemistry and bioflavor production at UCPH-FOOD in 2022, I have supervised two bachelor students and six master students. I am very engaged in supervision and thesis writing, and collaborating with tenure-track assistant professor Henriette Lyng Røder, we are currently formulating guidelines for thesis writing as part of our main report for our University Pedagogy course

    ID: 259143498