Sylvester Holt

Sylvester Holt

Assistant professor, tenure track

My academic background is in biochemistry and biotechnology, and the majority of my career has been dedicated to studying aroma generation by enzymes and yeasts. Currently, I am using PTR-MS and GC-MS techniques for aroma profiling in foods and beverages. 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 projects within the dynamic aroma release of plant-based foods, incorporating elements of colloid chemistry, biochemistry, biophysics, and biotechnology through collaboration with academic and industrial partners.

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

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