prof. dr. R.J.L. (Rob) Willems
Full Professor
- Department of Medical Microbiology
Contact
Biography
Prof. dr. Rob Willems studied biology at the Free University in Amsterdam and acquired his PhD from the Utrecht University in 1993 on “Genetic and functional studies on Bordetella pertussis fimbriae”. After postdoc positions at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University and at the Department of Infectious Diseases of the University Hospital, Leiden he became research scientist and section head at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in 1996. In 2003 he moved from the RIVM to the University Medical Center Utrecht where he became assistant professor. In 2008 he was appointed associate professor and since December 1st 2016, he is full professor of Population Genetics of Antibiotic Resistance at the department of Medical Microbiology of the University Medical Center Utrecht. Since 1997, he has set up and been involved in various national and international studies on antibiotic resistance. From 2007-2011 he coordinated an EC FP6 project on Approaches to Control multi-resistant Enterococci (ACE) and from 2011-2015 he was principal investigator and coordinator of the EC FP7 project designated Evolution and Transmission of Antibiotic Resistance (EvoTAR). His research group aims to unravel the genetic evolution, population and functional genomics of Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis as well as E. faecium host-pathogen interactions. His group was the first that identified structure in the E. faecium population and described that strains from hospitalized patients were genetically distinct from animal isolates and human commensal isolates. He also published the first comparative genomics paper on E. faecium using comparative genomic hybridizations as well as whole genome sequencing that revealed that E. faecium has an open genome capable for frequently incorporating new DNA in its genome. Currently, his group is also focussing on genome based epidemiology of multidrug-resistant pathogens, with a special focus reconstructing and tracking the spread of plasmids based on genome sequence data. Furthermore, his group aims to decipher the processes and molecular mechanisms that contribute to colonization resistance against high density colonization of antibiotic-resistant Enterobacteriaceae and enterococci and the consequences of intestinal outgrowth of these multidrig resistant opportunistic pathogens on pathogen-host cross-talk. Dr. Willems has authored more than 175 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters.
Side Activities
Chair of the Division of Molecular typing of the Royal Netherlands Society for Microbiology. Organised and lectured in courses and conferences in microbiology in Utrecht, Amsterdam, Wageningen, France, Germany, United Kingdon, Norway, Denmark, and Italy. Referee for several journals and regular referee for funding organisations such as University of Tromso (Norway),Institut Pasteur (France), Irish Research Council Laureate Awards (Ireland) and German Research Foundation, DTU (Denmark), International Centre for diarrhoeal Disease Research (Bangladesh), Marie Curie Fellowship (EU), NWO-Top (NL), ZonMW-Veni (NL) and The Welcome Trust (UK).
Research Output (228)
Janssen Axel B, Doorduijn Dennis J, Mills Grant, Rogers Malbert R C, Bonten Marc J M, Rooijakkers Suzan H M, Willems Rob J L, Bengoechea Jose A, van Schaik Willem 2 nov 2020, In: Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. 65
Ahmed Mohamed O., Elramalli Asma K., Baptiste Keith E., Daw Mohamed A., Zorgani Abdulaziz, Brouwer Ellen, Willems Rob J.L., Top Janetta 1 nov 2020, In: Microbial drug resistance. 26 , p. 1390-1398 9 p.
de Maat Vincent, Arredondo-Alonso Sergio, Willems Rob J.L., van Schaik Willem 18 aug 2020, In: BMC Genomics. 21 11 p.
Zhou Xuewei, Willems Rob J.L., Friedrich Alexander W., Rossen John W.A., Bathoorn Erik 10 aug 2020, In: Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control. 9 13 p.
Berbers Roos Marijn, Mohamed Hoesein Firdaus A.A., Ellerbroek Pauline M., van Montfrans Joris M., Dalm Virgil A.S.H., van Hagen P. Martin, Paganelli Fernanda L., Viveen Marco C., Rogers Malbert R.C., de Jong Pim A., Uh Hae Won, Willems Rob J.L., Leavis Helen L. 19 jun 2020, In: Frontiers in Immunology. 11 11 p.
Arredondo-Alonso Sergio, Bootsma Martin, Hein Yaïr, Rogers Malbert R.C., Corander Jukka, Willems Rob J.L., Schürch Anita C. 15 jun 2020, In: Bioinformatics (Oxford, England). 36 , p. 3874-3876 3 p.
Janssen Axel B., Bartholomew Toby L., Marciszewska Natalia P., Bonten Marc J.M., Willems Rob J.L., Bengoechea Jose A., van Schaik Willem 11 mrt 2020, In: mSphere. 5 13 p.
Pleguezuelos-Manzano Cayetano, Puschhof Jens, Rosendahl Huber Axel, van Hoeck Arne, Wood Henry M., Nomburg Jason, Gurjao Carino, Manders Freek, Dalmasso Guillaume, Stege Paul B., Paganelli Fernanda L., Geurts Maarten H., Beumer Joep, Mizutani Tomohiro, Miao Yi, van der Linden Reinier, van der Elst Stefan, Ambrose J. C., Arumugam P., Baple E. L., Bleda M., Boardman-Pretty F., Boissiere J. M., Boustred C. R., Brittain H., Caulfield M. J., Chan G. C., Craig C. E.H., Daugherty L. C., de Burca A., Devereau A., Elgar G., Foulger R. E., Fowler T., Furió-Tarí P., Hackett J. M., Halai D., Hamblin A., Henderson S., Holman J. E., Hubbard T. J.P., Ibáñez K., Jackson R., Smith K. R., Thompson S. R., Top Janetta, Willems Rob J.L., Cuppen Edwin, van Boxtel Ruben, Clevers Hans, 27 feb 2020, In: Nature. 580 , p. 269-273 5 p.
Arredondo-Alonso S., Top J., McNally A., Puranen S., Pesonen M., Pensar J., Marttinen P., Braat J. C., Rogers M. R.C., van Schaik W., Kaski S., Willems R. J.L., Corander J., Schürch A. C. 11 feb 2020, In: mBio. 11 17 p.
van Hout Denise, Verschuuren Tess D, Bruijning-Verhagen Patricia C J, Bosch Thijs, Schürch Anita C, Willems Rob J L, Bonten Marc J M, Kluytmans Jan A J W 1 jan 2020, In: PLoS ONE. 15 14 p.