Dan Stærk

Professor Dan Stærk serves as Full Professor and Head of Department at the Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology within the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen. He also holds a Visiting Professor position in Biopharmaceuticals at the same department. Professor Stærk leads the Natural Products Research group and the Copenhagen Small-Molecule NMR Center, a nationally prominent facility for NMR analysis of low-molecular weight organic compounds.

His academic journey began with a B.Sc. (1994) and M.Sc. (1997) in Chemistry and molecular biology/biochemistry from Odense University, followed by a Ph.D. (2000) from the Danish University of Pharmaceutical Sciences. His career progression includes positions as Assistant Professor (2000-2003), Associate Professor (2003-2008), and Professor with special duties before achieving his current Full Professor position in 2014.

Professor Stærk's research primarily focuses on discovering small-molecule and peptide-based drug leads from natural sources including medicinal plants, marine organisms, and microorganisms. His work targets critical disease areas such as type 2 diabetes, infectious diseases (antibacterial and antifungal compounds), and cancer. He also pursues sustainable drug discovery and the development of functional foods from by-products and biosynthetically modified organisms. A cornerstone of his research involves developing advanced bioanalytical techniques like high-resolution bioactivity profiling, ligand fishing, and HPLC-PDA-HRMS-SPE-NMR analysis for identifying bioactive constituents in complex extracts.

His publication record demonstrates significant impact in the field, with research appearing in top journals including Nature Communications, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Angewandte Chemie. His work shows strong citation metrics with an h-index of 39 (Web of Science) and 448 (Google Scholar), placing his research in the top 30% of NIH-funded projects according to iCite database.

• Teacher of the Year in 2001 at the Royal Danish School of Pharmacy
• Hede Nielsen Prize 2004 from Hede Nielsen Foundation
• Teacher of the Year in 2018 at PharmaSchool, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

Professor Stærk has supervised over 10 postdocs, 15 PhD students, and 60 MSc students throughout his career. He has secured substantial external funding exceeding 50 million DKK from prestigious sources including the Carlsberg Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Lundbeck Foundation, and the Danish Research Council. His current projects include the interdisciplinary 'Fungal Fight' initiative funded by the Strategic Research Council. He serves on various committees including the Research and Innovation Committee at his department and the Board of the Phytochemical Society of Europe.

He has established two major research infrastructure centers: the Copenhagen Small-Molecule NMR Center (featuring advanced NMR instrumentation) and the Copenhagen Shandong Metabolomics Infrastructure Center through collaboration with Chinese institutions. His research group maintains strong international partnerships, particularly with Shandong Province in China, where he was awarded the title of Taishan Distinguished Expert and Scholar.