Research areas

Thomas Emil Andersen is associated with the Department of Clinical Microbiology, Odense University Hospital (OUH) and the Research Unit of Clinical Microbiology, Department of Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark (SDU). TEA is head of the Clinical Biofilm Group which focuses on translating clinical and experimental research to new treatment regimens, diagnostic assays, and medical devices in collaboration with hospital departments and companies.

TEA initiated his research career by studying the gas-phase fragmentation of oligonucleotides in mass spectrometry (MSc project). Following this work TEA was employed as project coordinator in Nanon A/S, NKT Research, a position that was later combined with an industrial PhD conducted in collaboration with OUH and the Interdisciplinary Nano Science Center at Aarhus University. In 2010 TEA reverted to academia and conducted a postdoc at SDU/OUH where he coordinated the hospital contribution in two large hospital-industry innovation projects, aiming to develop antiinfection and biocompatible medical device materials. This work was combined with basic research in the pathogenesis of E. coli urinary tract infection and S. aureus bloodstream infection.

TEA’s postdoc work led to the establishment of several novel infection models based on human cell – bacteria co-cultures and later animal infection models which now constitute the research platform of TEA’s research group. In early 2020 TEA and colleague, MD, Rune M. Pedersen, established the Regions only virus culturing laboratory that has since contributed to the monitoring of the COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness and development of antiviral drugs and sterilizing equipment.

The research group of TEA covers a wide spectrum of cross-disciplinary projects related to hospital-associated infections, and is deeply engaged in translational research, funded by local and regional funds, public and private grants, contract work for the industry and EU funds.

For more information about projects and publications click here