Louis Kroes is a professor of Medical Microbiology, in particular Clinical Virology, since 2003. From 2007 to 2022, he led the Department of Medical Microbiology in the LUMC, further served as trainer for the specialty and held many positions on various boards in the field and in the training of specialists. Within the LUMC organization, the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory was directed by him for over 20 years, during which time it developed into a strictly quality-controlled, accredited and efficiently automated facility. With regard to the educational tasks of LUMC, he was a member of the Education Board and the Education Committee for Medicine, currently a member of the BKO Assessment Committee.

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Louis Kroes is a professor of Medical Microbiology, in particular Clinical Virology, since 2003. From 2007 to 2022, he led the Department of Medical Microbiology in the LUMC, further served as trainer for the specialty and held many positions on various boards in the field and in the training of specialists. Within the LUMC organization, the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory was directed by him for over 20 years, during which time it developed into a strictly quality-controlled, accredited and efficiently automated facility. With regard to the educational tasks of LUMC, he was a member of the Education Board and the Education Committee for Medicine, currently a member of the BKO Assessment Committee.

Medical microbiology

Professor of Medical Microbiology, in particular Clinical Virology. The phenomenon of infection as a disease-causing process is of great biological and medical significance. Knowledge of pathogens is necessary to recognize, treat and control the resulting threats. This is even more true in modern times, precisely because infectious problems become more serious as the population densities of humans and their food animals rise to unprecedented heights. Since the coronavirus pandemic, it has become widely apparent that new infections have potentially very serious consequences. Fortunately, there are also increasingly powerful tools available that support the control of these infections and their value has also been recently demonstrated. It is a challenge to apply such techniques optimally in clinical practice, to detect, fight and preferably prevent infections, which is the task of medical microbiology.

This relevance is clear from several questions in the National Science Agenda, including cluster question 99: How do we get better diagnostics, better treatments and better vaccines for immune disorders and infectious diseases? and cluster question 99: Using a greater understanding of life, how can we identify new targets for molecular therapies, antibiotics and antivirals? Virtually all of the research to which Louis Kroes has contributed aims to answering these questions.

During the time of the corona pandemic 2020-2022, Kroes gave many interviews to national media, mainly written press and radio programs.

Academic career

After a PhD in biochemistry (Erasmus University Rotterdam, 1987), Louis Kroes' scientific work focused on the origin, detection and treatment of virus-induced diseases in humans. This includes research on human herpesviruses (CMV, EBV), adenovirus, parvovirus, hepatitis viruses and respiratory infections, including influenza.

The title of his inaugural lecture in 2004 was "The virus: between life and death." In this role, he has so far authored about 200 scientific publications and supervised around 30 PhD studies. He is chief editor of the "Textbook of microbiology and infectious diseases", which is used by almost all Dutch and Flemish medical schools.