Birgitte Regenberg

Birgitte Regenberg is a Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Copenhagen, specifically working within the Ecology and Evolution research area. She leads the Regenberg Group, which focuses on genetic mechanisms for cell-cell variation in eukaryotic cells and their impact on diseases and chromosome evolution. Her laboratory is located at Universitetsparken 15, 2100 København Ø.

Professor Regenberg's research has gained significant international attention, particularly for her discovery that circular DNA is not merely a biological curiosity but an abundant carrier of genetic information. Her work demonstrates that DNA circles are produced from all parts of the genome across various eukaryotic species and cell types, including yeast, birds, and human somatic and germline cells. She has shown that these circular DNA molecules contain genes or gene fragments that can be expressed, solving a longstanding question in genetics about the fate of deleted DNA. Her group has developed advanced purification methods, bioinformatics tools, and targeted DNA circularization technologies in yeast and human genotypes, establishing a crucial research model for studying circular DNA's role in disease and evolution.

Her current research focuses on four main areas: circular DNA in disease (particularly cancers and neurodegenerative disorders), the factors causing DNA circularization in humans and yeast, measuring the effects of circular DNA on aging using mouse and yeast models, and investigating circular DNA's impact on evolution across yeast and mammals. Beyond circular DNA, her work extends to yeast as a model for biofilm formation, genetic and epigenetic variation, and transitions between uni- and multicellular phenotypes. She has made significant contributions to understanding yeast as a model for social evolution in unicellular eukaryotes, demonstrating the selective advantage of cell differentiation in yeast biofilm colonies and the role of the FLO11 gene in social interactions between yeast cells.

Professor Regenberg's research group employs a range of advanced techniques, including hypersensitive purification of circular DNA, next-generation short-read and long-read sequencing, microscopy for visualizing circular DNA, and extensive strain collections and methods in yeast and human genetics. Her work bridges molecular biology, genetics, and evolutionary biology, with significant implications for understanding disease mechanisms and evolutionary processes.