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Otto Mønsted found the inspiration for his life’s work abroad, and the foundation continues to support those who draw knowledge and inspiration from the wider world.
Businessman Otto Mønsted understood the importance of opening the window to the wider world. And it was there, during one of his many journeys, that he himself found inspiration for making the famous margarine. The Otto Mønsted Foundation has preserved that vision.
A significant part of the foundation’s funds are awarded to students, teachers and visiting professors with the aim of inspiring and adding international knowledge to Danish students and research environments at Denmark’s eight universities. This takes the form of scholarships and grants for study, internships and research stays abroad, congress participation and visiting professorships. These grants totalled DKK 11.5 million in 2020, according to the annual report for 2020.
Although COVID-19 has placed restrictions on travelling abroad in general and required more digital ‘togetherness’ and teaching than desired, the students and researchers who travelled abroad nevertheless benefited greatly from their stay abroad. And in some cases, far more than expected.
It was a win-win in Cambridge
When PhD student Line Ledsgaard travelled to the biotech company Iontas in Cambridge for a research stay in February 2020, she found it hard to imagine how a PhD thesis would come out of her previous work on producing human antibodies against snake toxins.
“But the eight months I spent in Cambridge saved the project. So much more came out of it than expected, so it couldn’t have been more perfect,” says Line Ledsgaard, who studies at the Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine at DTU.
In 2018, the founder of the Cambridge company won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing the phage display method, which makes it possible to produce human antibodies in test tubes. It was therefore natural that the company worked around the clock in 2020 to develop antibodies against COVID-19. When Line Ledsgaard was given the opportunity to become part of the corona project alongside her own research, there was free access for entry and intensive laboratory work.
“While the laboratory at DTU was closed for several months, I was in the lab every day – it was a win-win. Being in the UK has had a huge impact on my PhD project and my professional development. It’s been fantastic to work with methods I don’t have access to in my lab in Denmark, but most of all, working with some of the world’s most knowledgeable people in antibody research has made a huge impression on me. I still email my English supervisor three times a week because he’s willing to help and knows everything about everything, also when it comes to sparring about my future career path.”
During the summer, Line Ledsgaard expects to get test results of some mouse experiments back from Costa Rica. If they turn out as she hopes, she will be one of the first in the world to publish such results using human antibodies. It’s not a bad starting point when, after completing her PhD in 2022, she wants to build on her research career with a postdoc (research position) abroad.
See where the scholarship recipients are travelling to here