In 1989 Kuipers received a SHELL fellowship to give lectures in the United States at Prof. Mahendra Jain, Prof. Michael Gelb and Prof. Yang and on a conference about Time Resolved Fluorescence.
From 1990 to 1997 he worked as a project leader on molecular genetics at the Department of Biophysical Chemistry of NIZO foodresearch, a contract research center in Ede.
From 1997 to 1999 he was head of genetics and research leader of the section Microbial Ingredients of the same institute.
From 1999 Kuipers is professor and head of the ‘Molecular Genetics of Prokaryotes’ group of the Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute of the University of Groningen.
1999 – 2000 member of the founding committee of the Groningen Genomics Centre of the University of Groningen
1999 – 2007 member of the board of directors of the Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute of the University of Groningen
2000 – 2007 chairman of the Genetics Cluster of the University of Groningen
2011 – present member of the scientific advisory board of the LOEWE Institute for Synthetitic Microbiology in Marburg
2013 – present confidential advisor on scientific integrity, Faculty of Mathematics- and Natural Sciences, University of Groningen Groningen
2015 – present chairman and co-founder of the Centre for Sustainable Antimicrobials of the University of Groningen
2015 – present cofounder, Centre for Antimicrobial Research . Chairman & Director: Prof. Gilles van Wezel.
Research
The research of Kuipers and his research group is focused on curiosity driven research with a keen eye on biotechnological applications. Kuipers has so far supervised 21 postdoctoral researchers and 35 PhD students in their doctorate research. At the moment he supervises 18 PhD students and 7 postdoctoral researchers. He has been invited more than 180 times to national and international conferences, seminars and congresses to give a lecture. An important topic of research is the study of the genetics and physiology of bacteria. Among others, the cellular differentiation of bacteria is investigated. Bacteria growing in a culture can develop different characteristics, while their genome remains unchanged. Kuipers stated: ‘Our research has many applications, for example the improvement of protein production in industrial fermentation'. Another important subject is the production and modification of peptides. These modified peptides, are made by bacteria, and can serve as antibiotic. Modified peptides are chemically more stable and retain their function longer than unmodified peptides. This is beneficial for medical applications as a novel class of antibiotics. Further areas of focus are the molecular biology of: competence, sporulation and bistability in Bacillus subtilis, the reconstruction of gene networks, antimicrobial peptides, antibiotics, mechanisms of pathogenesis, cell wall anchoring, controlled gene expression systems, the subcellular localization of protein, stress response, quorum sensing, regulation of the C- and N-metabolism, natural gene transfer methodologies, plant-biocontrol by Bacilli and Biotechnology applications.
Research for industry
2014 – 2017 Corbion, Corbion Thermophiles. Prime investigator €530k
2010-2013 Purac, Competence in industrial Bacillus strains. Prime investigator €420k
2004 – 2007 DSM Bakery Ingredients B.V. Sense: Screening for protein secertion using secretion stress indicators. Prime investigator €640k
2001 – 2005 Frico + DSM Directing Starters Together 2. Prime investigator €554k
2000 – 2006 Intervet International B.V. Expression of heterologous proteins in Bacillus. Prime investigator €433k
Research by bachelor and master students
From 2008 Kuipers is supervisor, coach and coordinator of the iGEM student team Groningen. iGEM is a worldwide competition in the field of synthetic biology between teams of students from all over the world. The team from Groningen won in the annual in Boston organized international competition several gold medals. In 2012, when the team from Groningen became world champion, the research concerned a study of an alternative method to determine whether food is spoiled: the Food warden . This method makes use of genetic engineered bacteria responsive to the volatiles of the decomposingmeat. A pigment makes the decomposition visible.
Publications
Prof. dr. O.P. Kuipers published 365 articles in scientific papers, 2 books and 18 chapters in books. 34 publications appeared in 2015. Kuipers articles have been cited over 26 148 times and he has a H-index of 84 and an i10 index of 278. This means that 80 of his articles have been cited at least 80 times and that 278 articles have been cited more than 10 times.
