Profile of the advisor
Prof. dr. Arnold Driessen is professor in Molecular Microbiology at the University of Groningen since 1997. He obtained his PhD (cum laude) in 1987 at the same university, and following a Postdoc at the University of California (Los Angeles) in 1989/1990, he established a research group in Groningen that studies the enzymology and physiology of membrane-bound processes in microorganisms. Driessen is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Expertise
Membrane proteins, Reconstitution, Lipidomics, Synthetic cell, Extremophiles.
Profile of the research group
Research on the function of membrane proteins in complex cellular processes such as bacterial protein translocation and membrane biogenesis. This includes the bottom up construction of a synthetic cell by reconstituting the entire process of phospholipid biosynthesis in vitro and its integration with other essential cellular processes such as membrane protein biogenesis and cell division (BaSyc Gravity programme); functional and structural analysis of (tetra-)ether phospholipid biosynthesis enzymes from extremophilic archaea; membrane engineering for robustness in industrial processes; and experimental approaches to understand the evolution of membranes in early life forms.
