Applied Microbiology

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITION:
Professor of Molecular Biology & Microbial Food Safety (MBMFS) at the Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, Universiteit van Amsterdam

EDUCATION:
Stanley Brul was trained as a Biochemist and graduated 'cum laude' in 1986. In 1991 he obtained a PhD with a doctoral thesis entitled 'Biochemical and Genetic Aspects of Peroxisome Biogenesis in Mammalian Cells'. He then started in 1990 as a post-doctoral fellow at Nijmegen University to study the biogenesis of the hydrogenosome at the Department of Microbiology and Evolutionary Biology of the University of Nijmegen. In 1992 Stanley Brul a obtained National Science Council scholarship for a visit to the Rockefeller University New York (lab Prof Miklos Muller, who discovered hydrogenosomes). Subsequently, in 1994, he was awarded an NWO (NATO) TALENT Stipendium for a stay at the International Institute for Cellular and Molecular Pathology in Brussels to study the cell and molecular biology of protozoa.

MEMBERSHIPS:
Currently Stanley Brul is chairman of the Dutch Institute for BioSciences, a member of the Dutch BioScience Forum and the ‘ad hoc’ Ci. BioSciences of the Royal Academy of Science (KNAW).

EDITORIAL POSITIONS:
Currently he is editor of Elseviers’ food technology journal Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies & Journal of Biotechnology and Biomedicine – an open source journal.

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Central to the research of our group is molecular stress physiology of microorganisms in relation to their food or pharma related environment. Stresses include temperature, weak-organic acids and antimicrobial agents. We are a member of the Netherlands Institute for Systems Biology NISB. The tool kit we apply includes genome-wide micro-array analysis, proteomics, various advanced microscopical techniques and controlled cell culturing systems such as fermentors and chemostats. We have major contacts and contracts with the food and pharma industry focussing on the application of our research in practical settings. Results are as much as possible quantified and analysed using various modelling tools.