Lars Nielsen

Professor Nielsen leads the development of experimental and computational tools to analyze and design complex biological systems at the University of Queensland in Australia. He is also the CSO of the Novo Nordisk Center for Biosustainability in Denmark. Nielsen’s studies of biological systems, including mammalian cells, bacteria, baker’s yeast, and sugarcane, has attracted industrial partnerships with companies including Dow, Metabolix, Amyris, LanzaTech, Boeing, Virgin Australia, and GE.

Nielsen is applying system analysis and design to tissue engineering including novel strategies for generating microtissues for drug screening, and using stem cells to produce red and white blood cells for transfusion. Nielsen has been granted patents in the fields of stem cells and metabolic engineering. He was on the Scientific Advisory Board of InSphero from 2009–2015, a company commercializing microtissue technology originating in the Nielsen laboratory. He is an editorial board member of a wide variety of scientific journals and holds several major awards in his field.