Aldert L. Zomer

Aldert L. Zomer, Ph.D.

  • Position:
    Post Doctoral Fellow

    Laboratory of Pediatric Infectious Diseases

    Centre for Molecular and Biomolecular Informatics

    Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center (Nijmegen, Netherlands)

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  • Advisor:

    Peter W Hermans

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  • Degrees:
     
    Ph.D., Molecular Genetics, University of Groningen (Groningen, Netherlands)
     
    B.Sc., Biotechnology, Hanzehogeschool Groningen (Zernike, Netherlands)
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  • Past Advisors:
     
    Douwe van Sinderen (as Post Doctoral Fellow)
     
    Oscar P. Kuipers (as Graduate Student - Ph.D.)
     
    Jan Kok (as Graduate Student - Ph.D.)
     
    Harry Laan (as Technician)
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  • Research:
    My present research focuses on drug target discovery of S. pneumoniae with techniques such as Genomic Array Footprinting and Genomic Sequence Footprinting, also called Tn-seq and analyzing the resulting data using smart bioinformatics methods.

    Respiratory tract infections are a leading cause of global mortality and morbidity. It has been estimated by the WHO that annually 4-5 million people die of pneumonia. Streptococcus pneumoniae, aptly named because it is the most important bacterial cause of pneumonia, is likely primarily responsible for these deaths. Infection by S. pneumoniae is a complex process dependent on a number of essential pathways, of which members could form ideal candidates for drug design. To identify microbial genes required for pathogenesis, we utilize an insertion knockout strategy that allows rapid identification of disrupted genes using micro array based approaches and next generation sequencing methodologies to determine which genes are essential under a number of relevant in vitro and in vivo conditions. To identify shared essential pathways I use statistical analysis, pathway analysis, network reconstruction and functional category enrichment methods on existing data and newly generated data to determine the most ideal candidates for drug design. Vaccines and novel drugs generated from this approach will provide alternatives to continue treatment and prevention of life-threatening chronic and acute bacterial infectious diseases.

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  • Other Experience:

    2010-present Postdoc at Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre

    2006-2010 Postdoc at University College Cork

    2009 Scientific Officer at the Irish Research Council for Science Engineering and Technology

    2002-2006 PhD at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

    1999-2002 Research assistant at IMEnz Bioengineering

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  • Honors:

    2011-present EU FP7 Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship

    2007-2009 Embark Postdoctoral Fellowship

    2006 IOP-Genomics travel grant

Life Sciences
Communities:

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Aldert Zomer's Publications (28)



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