Lene Niemann Nejsum is professor at Aarhus University and leads the Laboratory of Aquaporin Water Channels and Bioimaging. She holds a PhD in medicine and a Doctor medicinae degree from Aarhus University. With international experience from a five-year postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University, she has led her own interdisciplinary research group since 2010. Her research has been supported by major grants, including a Lundbeck Foundation Junior Group Leader Fellowship and a Hallas-Møller Ascending Investigator Fellowship from the Novo Nordisk Foundation. She is committed to fostering an open, collaborative lab culture and mentoring early-career scientists.
Lene Niemann Nejsum serves on the editorial board of AJP – Cellular Physiology and Journal of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology (APMIS), and is a Career Ambassador at Health, Aarhus University.
Lene Niemann Nejsum's research focuses on aquaporins—specialized water channels—and their regulation and function in both health and disease, with particular emphasis on the kidney and cancer biology. A key part of her work addresses how aquaporin-2 (AQP2) is regulated to maintain the body’s water balance, an essential physiological process especially relevant during dehydration and heat exposure.
Her research is highly translational and includes close collaborations with clinical departments, aiming to bridge molecular mechanisms with patient-oriented outcomes. Advanced bioimaging technologies are central to her approach, enabling visualization of nanoscale processes such as vesicular trafficking and membrane localization of aquaporins.
Lene Niemann Nejsum teaches several courses at Aarhus University, including the PhD course Introduction to Fluorescence Microscopy, which she initiated and organizes. The course provides students with a basic understanding of fluorescence microscopy and its applications in cell- and tissue biology, focusing on both theoretical principles and practical techniques.
