How animals and microbes jointly shape health, resource use, and sustainability lies at the core of Jenny Merkesvik’s doctoral research. Using modern multi omics methods, she explored how complex datasets can reveal interactions that influence the future of food production.
Below, she answers four questions about her research:
Why is this research important?
The global need for resources to feed the growing population shows that we need more efficient food systems. Simultaneously, we must abide by practical, legislative, and ethical limitations for animal production, welfare, and sustainability. One way to meet our resource demands is to leverage biological processes that occur in food systems we already utilise.
For instance, understanding the transformation of feed into animal biomass can enable us to improve production processes, both with respect to the animals and the humans we seek to feed.
What were the goals of you phd-work?
To obtain this understanding, we need data and methods that represent the complex units and interactions occurring in production animals. This includes the animals themselves, as well as the thousands of microorganisms inhabiting various surfaces in and on the animal, which contribute to the animal’s functionality and health.
This thesis explores how modern molecular and computational biology methods can contribute to our understanding of host–microbiome systems in an animal production setting.
What are your most important results?
We are currently able to identify and quantify macromolecules like genomes, gene transcripts, metabolites, and proteins – jointly referred to as ‘omics’ data – to gain objective and data‑driven insight into biological systems.
A new bottleneck, however, is how to make use of all the data we collect. Combining and co‑analysing omics data is the aim of ‘multi‑omics’, but these approaches produce enormous datasets which both we and our computers often struggle to handle and interpret.
The papers in this thesis explore how multi‑omic analyses of host–microbiome systems from animal production can be conducted, how interactions between microbes and animals can be inferred, and how this knowledge allows us to solve current issues in animal production.
What is the potential impact of your research:
SamlaOverall, the thesis demonstrates that co‑analysis of complex biological data can provide functional insight into host–microbe systems. The work has provided new leads for continued research and development of sustainable food systems.
om forskinga:
Jenny Merkesvik
- Frå: Horten
- Name: Jenny Merkesvik
- From: Horten
- Age: 28
- PhD faculty: Faculty of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Science
- Funding: EU Horizon 2020
- Previous education: MSc in Biotechnology, NTNU
- Trial lecture and defence: 27 March 2026 and 29 April 2026, NMBU Ås
- Main supervisor: Prof. Torgeir R. Hvidsten (KBM, NMBU)
- Co-supervisor(s): Prof. Phil B. Pope (KBM og BIOVIT, NMBU, og Centre for Microbiome Research; Queensland University of Technology; Woolloongabba, Australia)
- Thesis title:
- – Multi-omisk dataanalyse for å utrede vert–mikrobiom-interaksjoner som former dyreproduksjon
- – Multi-omic data analysis to unravel host-microbiome interactions shaping animal production