Alexander Kros uses supramolecular approaches in a biological environment. His main interest is in understanding the underlying fundamentals of membrane fusion in Nature using model systems and utilize the obtained knowledge to design new drug delivery tools.

More information about Alexander Kros

Curriculum Vitae

Personal information

Nationality:   Dutch
Date of birth:   4 June 1969

Education

2000   PhD, Faculty of Chemistry, Radboud University, The Netherlands, 20 December 2000
Thesis title: ‘Amperometric Biosensors Based on Conducting Nanotubes’
Advisor: Prof. R.J.M. Nolte
1995   MSc in Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Radboud University, The Netherlands

Current and previous research positions

2015 – now     Full Professor in Supramolecular & Biomaterials Chemistry, Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden University, the Netherlands
2009 – 2015   Associate Professor, Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden University, the Netherlands
2002 – 2009   Assistant Professor, Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden University, the Netherlands
2000 – 2001   Post-doctoral Researcher (STW fellowship), Caltech, USA (Prof.D.A. Tirrell)

Grants, awards, recognitions since 2010

2016   NWO-CW M-ERA.net with 4 international partners (k€ 133)
2015   NWO-CW Vici (k€ 1,500)
2015   EU ERC Proof of Concept (k€ 150)
2014   NWO NCI-TA (k€ 766)
2014   GlaxoSmithKline with J.A. Bouwstra (LACDR) (k€ 240)
2013   EU ERC Proof of Concept (k€ 132)
2012   FOM programme with van Noort/Orrit (LION) and Schaaf (IBL) (k€ 259)
2011   NWO-CW ChemThem Chemical Biology with J.H.B. Sprakel (WUR) (k€ 500)
2010   FES-HTSM NanoNextNL (k€ 158)
2009   EU ERC Starting Grant (k€ 1,392)

Contribution to teaching and supervision

• Undergraduate course for BSc Biopharmaceutical Sciences: Chemistry-1
• Two courses for MSc Chemistry at Leiden University: Supramolecular Chemistry; and Biomaterials (starts 2016-2017)

Supervision (finished and ongoing) of 25 PhD students and 7 postdoctoral fellows (three Veni fellows, one Marie Curie fellow) since 2003. Current employment of recent PhD students and postdocs: H. Zope, Harvard medical school; M. Rabe, Max Planck Institute; N. Lopez-Mora, Imperial college London; J. Voskuhl (junior professor), Duisburg-Essen University; F. Porta (on tenure track), Basel University; S. Cavalli (on tenure track), Italian Institute of Technology; F. Versluis (currently on a Veni grant at LIC), Wageningen University; T. Zheng, Wageningen University; C. Banier, University of Lausanne; I. Tomatsu, group leader at Henkel Japan; K. Peng, OCE the Netherlands.

Other responsibilities since 2010

• Editorial board member of Scientific Reports and Frontiers in Chemical Biology as Review Editor (Nature in The Hague, 21-26 August 2016, 1640 participants
• Co-chair of of the 253rd ACS National Meeting & Exposition, April 2-6, 2017, San Francisco, CA. Polymeric Materials: Sciences and Engineering (PMSE) Symposium on Molecular Engineering of Peptide Assembly
• Chairman of the exam committee of the MSc Chemistry. Member of the exam committee of the MSc Life Science and Technology. Member library committee Faculty of Science
• Member of review panel for the European Research Council (2x Advanced Grant; 2x Starting Grant), Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), ERA Synbio, Israel Science Foundation and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and NWO-Chemical Sciences.
• Reviewer of DFG, ISF and BBRSC grants 2016
• External member to PhD and promotion committees in the Netherlands, Israel, United Kingdom
• Reviewer for Nature, Nature Chemistry, Nature Communications, Angewandte Chemie, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Chemical Science and various polymer and biomaterial oriented chemistry journals

Publication record including five recent representative publications

Ca. 130 papers with > 3100 citations, H-index 32 (Web of Science)

Full publication record: Google Scholar, Leiden University

• Yang J., Bahreman A., Daudey G., Bussmann J., Olsthoorn R.C.L., Kros A., Drug delivery via cell membrane fusion using lipopeptide modified liposomes. ACS Central Science. 2016, 2, 621-630.
• Yang J., Shimada Y., Olsthoorn R.C.L., Snaar-Jagalska B.E., Spaink H.P., Kros A., Application of Coiled Coil Peptides in Liposomal Anti-Cancer Drug Delivery using a Zebrafish Xenograft Model. ACS Nano, 2016, 10, 7428-7435.
• Lopez Mora N.F., Bahreman A., Valkenier H., Li H., Sharp T.H., Sheppard D.N., Davis A.P., Kros, A., Targeted anion transporter delivery by coiled-coil driven membrane fusion. Chemical Science. 2016, 7, 1768-1772.
• Kong L., Askes S.H.C., Bonnet S.A., Kros A., Campbell F., Temporal Control of Membrane Fusion through Photolabile PEGylation of Liposome Membranes. Angew.Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 1396-1400.
• Zope H.R., Versluis F., Ordas A., Voskuhl J., Spaink H.P., Kros A.. In vitro and In vivo supramolecular biomembrane engineering using a lipidated coiled-coil motif. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Eng. 2013, 52, 14247-14251.

Presentations including five presentations at international conferences since 2010

>50 invited presentations at universities, and institutes, and invited, keynote and plenary lectures at international conferences since 2010

• Drug Delivery via Cell Membrane Fusion using Lipopeptide Modified Liposomes. Invited lecture at Self-assembled peptides: from nanostructure to bioactivity. The Royal Society Theo Murphy meeting, 23–25 October 2016. Chicheley Hall, Buckinghamshire (United Kingdom)
• Drug Delivery via Cell Membrane Fusion using Lipopeptide Modified Liposomes. Invited lecture at 3rd ERC Grantees Conference: “Frontiers in Chemistry” August 31st - September 2nd 2016, in Zandvoort (The Netherlands)
• Spatiotemporal Control of Membrane Fusion through Photolabile PEGylation of Liposome Membranes. Invited lecture at symposium “Biomembrane Synthesis, Structure, Mechanics & Dynamics” at the 247th national meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), 13-17 March 2016, in San Diego (USA)
• Studying membrane fusion at the molecular level. Invited lecture at the 2015 Annual Biophysical Society Meeting, 7-11 February 2015, Baltimore (USA)
• Amphiphilic Peptides in Nanoscience. Invited lecture at the Gordon Research Conference on Peptides: Chemistry and Biology, 19-24 February 2012, Ventura (USA)

Publications