Professor Pablo I. Nikel, PhD

Living cells operate within defined chemical boundaries shaped by metabolism, regulation, and physicochemical constraints. Systems biotechnology provides a framework to explore and expand these limits by integrating genome-scale engineering, quantitative omics, and metabolic modeling. In this talk, I will illustrate how a combination of such systems-wide approaches enables the design of bacteria capable of supporting chemistries rarely found in biology. As an example, I will discuss the introduction of fluorine, the most reactive element in the periodic table, into cellular metabolism, creating pathways and metabolic systems that provide access to fluorinated building blocks and materials while uncovering the dark matter of bacterial metabolism. These efforts illustrate how the integration of systems-level design and analysis with synthetic metabolism enables non-canonical biochemistry within complex metabolic networks, expanding our understanding of metabolic wiring and of the chemical space that living systems can operate.

Short Bio:

Pablo I. Nikel obtained a Ph.D. in Biotechnology and Molecular Biology in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where his early work focused on understanding metabolic wiring and regulation in Escherichia coli. After research stays in the United States at Rice University, supported by the American Society for Microbiology, he moved to Europe, where he worked in France and Austria, and then as a postdoctoral fellow in Spain, funded by the European Molecular Biology Organization and the Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions of the European Commission. He is currently Full Professor and Chair of Synthetic Bacterial Metabolism at the Technical University of Denmark, where he leads the Systems Environmental Microbiology group. 
His research develops systems biotechnology approaches to understand and redesign microbial metabolism. Nikel’s work aims to uncover how metabolic systems can be reprogrammed to expand the chemical capabilities of living cells, supported by integrating quantitative physiology, genome scale analysis, and synthetic metabolic pathways. A central theme of his laboratory is the exploration of non-canonical biochemistry in bacteria, including the biological synthesis of fluorinated compounds and other molecules that lie beyond the scope of natural metabolism. To accomplish this vision, Nikel has received funding from European Framework Programmes, EMBO, the European Research Council, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation, among others. He received the MSCA medal, Ascending Investigator and Distinguished Innovator awards, and he member of several societies academies including the American Academy of Microbiology. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Current Opinion in Biotechnology, is editor for several international journals, and co-founded four companies. Since 2026 he has also served as Scientific Director of the Biotechnology Research Institute for the Green Transition (BRiGHT) at DTU.