Course board
Prof. Sef Heijnen
After his MSc studies in Chemical Engineering, Sef Heijnen worked at DSM (then: Gist Brocades) for 15 years and in this period he also completed his PhD thesis in bioprocess technology at Delft University of Technology. In 1988, he became full professor and group leader in Cell Systems Engineering within the Department of Biotechnology of Delft University of Technology. He has an impressive track record: he is (co-) author of over 400 scientific publications, has supervised 50 PhD students and is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). His research interests are (1) metabolic engineering and systems biology applied to industrial microbial processes using Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Penicillium chrysogenum and Escherichia coli, (2) metabolome measurement and 13C-tracer analysis in steady state and dynamic conditions, and (3) thermodynamic and kinetic modelling of metabolism and fermentation. Prof. Heijnen teaches a wide variety of courses, and was elected at TU Delft’s 2003 ‘Leermeester’ (best lecturer).
Dr. Pascale Daran-Lapujade
Pascale Daran-Lapujade is assistant professor at the TU Delft Department of Biotechnology in the Industrial Microbiology section. Her research investigates the physiology of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, to unravel the molecular mechanisms that drive its response to diverse environmental stimuli and to identify the evolutionary circumstances that have shaped their genomes. Although many of her research questions are inspired by industrial applications of yeasts, she also seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of fundamental aspects of cellular physiology and metabolism, using S. cerevisiae as a model. In addition she is editor of the journal FEMS Yeast Research and member of the board of the Microbial Biotechnology section of the Dutch Society for Microbiology (KNVM).
Faculty staff
Dr. Walter van Gulik
Delft University of Technology, Cell Systems Engineering, Delft, the Netherlands
Dr. Robbert Kleerebezem
Delft University of Technology, Environmental Biotechnology, Delft, the Netherlands
Guest lecturers
Prof. Matthias Heinemann
University of Groningen, Molecular Systems Biology Group, Groningen, the Netherlands
Dr. Dietrich Kohlheyer
Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, IBG-1: Biotechnology, Microscale Bioengineering Group, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany
Dr. Stefan de Kok
Stefan de Kok obtained his PhD from Delft University of Technology by studying “metabolic engineering of free-energy (ATP) conserving reactions in Saccharomyces cerevisiae”. Afterwards, he moved to Amyris Inc. in California, where he worked on high-throughput, automated strain engineering technologies. Dr. De Kok led a project to optimize ligase cycling reaction (LCR) as a method for rapid and reliable assembly of up to 20 DNA parts into DNA constructs up to 20 kb. In addition, he was involved in metabolic engineering of yeast strains for farnesene production. Currently, Dr. de Kok works as scientist and project leader at Zymergen Inc. in California, where he utilizes robotic strain engineering technologies to develop microbes producing novel molecules, and to improve the performance of microbes used in industrial fermentation.
Dr. Jan Marienhagen
Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, IBG-1: Biotechnology, Synthetic Cell Factories Group, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany
Prof. Henk Noorman
Henk Noorman was trained as Chemical Engineer from Groningen University (NL). He obtained a PhD in Bioprocess Technology from Delft University of Technology (NL, 1991), on microbal systems modeling. He became a post-doc fellow in a Nordic research consortium, and co-ordinated a fermentation scale-up project among academic groups in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. He then joined Gist-brocades and DSM in Delft (NL) and worked on fermentation development and implementation projects, mainly in the area of antibiotics and bio-based products. He also has been project manager for innovation projects, and received the DSM R&D Award 2010. Henk Noorman is currently working as Corporate Scientist Bioprocess Technology in the DSM Biotechnology Center and involved in numerous projects in Industrial Biotechnology, Food Specialties, Anti-Infectives, and the Corporate Research Program. In addition he is honorary professor at Technical University Delft working on Bioprocess Design and Integration. Teaching activities include courses in Delft, Wageningen (NL), Brac (Croatia) and Shanghai (China).
Prof. Matthias Reuss
Institut für Bioverfahrenstechnik, University Stuttgart, Germany
Prof. Ralf Takors
Institut für Bioverfahrenstechnik, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Sander Tans
Kalvi Institute of NanoScience, Delft University of Technology
FOM-Institute for Atomic and MOlecular Physics (AMOLF), Amsterdam
Prof. Joost Teixeira de Mattos
Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, SILS, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Prof. Ruud Weusthuis
Associate Professor Microbial Biotechnology Bioprocess Engineering Wageningen University & Research