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Fungal researcher: “Fungi have much more in common with us than with plants”

They are masters of specialization, and their abilities could benefit us in areas ranging from food production to future medicine. Dive into the world of fungi.

Jakob Blæsbjerg Hoof enjoys teaching and has big plans for the future. Foto: Bax Lindhardt.

Monday 11 August 2025

Linnea Lundberg

Jakob Blæsbjerg Hoof, a researcher and associate professor at DTU Bioengineering, is trying to learn everything there is to know about fungi. He wants to share this knowledge with as many people as possible. After all, there is a lot we can learn from them.

“It's quite wrong when textbooks put fungi in the same category as plants because, unlike plants, fungi do not photosynthesize. Instead, they absorb nutrients, such as carbon, from their environment, just as we do. They have also learnt to live in symbiosis with their environment. For example, there are moulds that make plant roots grow faster and better,” enthuses Jakob Blæsbjerg Hoof.

At the beginning of his career, he focused a lot on the "engineering" of fungi, i.e. making man-made changes to the fungal organism to promote beneficial properties.

One beneficial property could be the production of bioactive substances and useful enzymes by fungi.

Currently, the focus is on investigating the properties that natural fungi already possess. This is where DTU's extensive fungi collection, also known as the IBT Culture Collection, comes in.

This consists of around 39,000 mould isolates stored in four cold rooms at 9 degrees Celsius. An isolate is obtained by collecting mould samples. These are first purified in Petri dishes and then identified by the researchers. The isolate is then placed in the collection.

Overall, each isolate exhibits its own unique characteristics. Some properties are beneficial to humans, such as when a mould can be used as an ingredient in medicine or food products. Other properties are far from useful; for example, some moulds produce toxic compounds and problematic spores. 

Either way, Jakob Blæsbjerg Hoof is becoming increasingly knowledgeable about them. He wants to pass on his curiosity to the students he teaches.

“I try to create the right environment in which to experiment and learn from the experience. The exciting thing about studying is the development, not just reaching the goal,” he explains.

These moulds were taken from a ham and then cultivated in Petri dishes. Photo: Bax Lindhardt.

A complete master's programme on fungi

Jakob Blæsbjerg Hoof enjoys teaching and has big plans for the future.

“It would be fantastic to create a master's programme across Danish universities where you can specialize in fungi and explore their many uses. I have no doubt that there is interest among students and the business community,” he says.

Such a programme would allow Danish and international students to immerse themselves in one or more disciplines involving fungi, including those in DTU's collection. This collection is still growing, as Jakob and his colleagues continue to collect mould isolates from nature.

This fascination with fungi can also be seen in popular culture in 2025. One example is the HBO Max series The Last of Us, which recently concluded its second season. In the series, humans are infected by fungi and subsequently controlled by them. You might be tempted to ask: is this realistic? Jakob Blæsbjerg Hoof answers:

“No, not quite. But we're extremely fortunate that our body temperature is 37 degrees centigrade; otherwise, we would be an obvious choice for fungi. There are already fungi that specialize in infecting ants and controlling their behaviour, for example. The victims of this particular fungus are also known as 'zombie ants'. So what we see in fiction also occurs to some extent in nature.”

Jakob Blæsbjerg Hoof collects owl figurines because he finds owls fascinating. Photo: Bax Lindhardt.
Moulds can be found in all sorts of places. Jakob Blæsbjerg Hoof found this one on a wine cork, for example. Photo: Bax Lindhardt.
The DTU IBT Culture Collection currently consists of around 39,000 mould isolates stored in four cold rooms at 9°C. An isolate is obtained by collecting fungal samples. Photo: Bax Lindhardt.

Contact

Jakob Blæsbjerg Hoof

Jakob Blæsbjerg Hoof Associate Professor Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine Phone: +45 45252676