John van der Oost

I obtained my PhD in 1989 at the Free University (Amsterdam) on a research project in which microbial physiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology were combined. Subsequently I spent 3 years abroad, 2.5 years of which as EMBO fellow at the EMBL (Heidelberg, Germany) where I worked on protein engineering and protein crystallization. I returned to Amsterdam as KNAW fellow for 3 years, during which I worked on protein analysis and pathway engineering. In 1995 I was appointed as group leader (Assistant Professor) of the Bacterial Genetics group in the Laboratory of Microbiology (Wageningen University) where a number of fundamental and applied projects were/are ongoing. In 2002 I was appointed Associate Professor, and in December 2004 I obtained an ALW-Vici grant of the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWO). In January 2005 I was appointed Full Professor (Personal Chair Microbiology & Biochemistry). During the last decade, financial support has been obtained from NWO (ALW, CW, STW, BMI), ACTS (IBOS, BSIK/FES, DSTI) and EU (FP7 projects, Marie Curie RTN). The applied research mainly concerns identification, production and optimization (random and directed mutagenesis) of enzymes (often from thermophilic micro-organisms) with potential for industrial application. The fundamental studies initially focused on the unraveling of central metabolic pathways and their regulation. With the Vici project (2005-2010) a shift towards global regulation and signal transduction incl. RNA/DNA-guided interference systems of prokaryotes.