Amsterdam University Medical Centers (partner, AMC)
The Amsterdam UMC, location AMC is one of the eight university medical centers in the Netherlands, and is considered to be among the top international specialists in the field of academic medicine. Over 7,000 people work there to provide integrated patient care, fundamental and clinical scientific research, and teaching.The AMC complex houses the university hospital and the faculty of medicine of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) as well as the Emma Children’s Hospital, the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, the Spinoza Centre for Neuroimaging, and the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development. A number of biotech companies (some of which are AMC spin-offs) are also located on the premises. This concentration of expertise makes the center a breeding ground for fruitful scientific collaboration.
Department of Medical Microbiology
The Department of Medical Microbiology and Infection Prevention of the Amsterdam UMC – AMC is responsible for clinical diagnostics and infectious disease consultations, (bio)medical education and training, and research and development across the full range of disciplines in medical microbiology, including bacteriology, virology and parasitology. The department is also responsible for the clinical supervision of the microbiology laboratory of the Amsterdam Public Health Service (GGD), responsible for primary care and public health microbiology in Amsterdam.
TEAM
Dr. Sebastian A.J. Zaat, is the principal investigator at the UMC, Department of MedicalMicrobiology of the research line “Biomaterial-associated infection and novel antimicrobial strategies”. The current research is building upon results of large interdisciplinary projects combining infection biology, novel antimicrobials, material sciences and host response and immunology. These projects include the Dutch Biomedical Materials (BMM) project NANTICO “Non-Adherent ANTImicrobial Coatings” project (WP Leader),the BMM IBIZA “Imaging of Biomaterial-associated Infection using Zebrafish Analysis” project (Principal Investigator), and the European Commission FP7BALI “Biofilm Alliance” project (Coordinator). Dr. Zaat has been vice chair of the working group on ‘In vivotesting and preclinical studies’ of the European COST Action iPROMEDAI “Improved PROtection of MEdical Devices Against Infection”. Presently, he is work package leader in the European H2020 ITN project PRINT-AID and partner in STIMULUS, co-applicant of the Twinning CEMBO project and of the Eurostars SIBAGEM project. Moreover, he is coordinator of the PHOTO-TREAT project, utilizing photosensitizers against bacterial infection,work package leader in the Dutch NWA DARTBAC consortium aimed at novel non-antibiotic approaches to prevent and treat orthopedic implant infections, and partner in the Dutch STW project CRANIOSAFE on antimicrobial craniofacial implants, NWO project SUPERACTIVE on supramolecular polymers to render biomaterials antimicrobial, and NWO projects NESDAP and GDST (Principal Investigator), on novel antimicrobial peptide design by artificial intelligence and AMP controlled release technology. Dr. Zaat’s publication list consists of over 120 journal publications, 8 book chapters and 2 books (co-editor). Currently, Zaat is co-promotor of 7PhD students, and 10 PhD students have graduated under his supervision earlier. In the education field, Zaat is board member of the section “Education” of the Royal Dutch Society for Microbiology, Board Member of the Dutch Foundation for Biomedical Scientific Research Training (“SMBWO”), coordinator ofand teacher inBachelor and Master courses on Medical Microbiology of the University of Amsterdam and lecturer at Technical Universities Delft and Eindhoven in the Netherlands.
Dr. Martijn Riool is post-doctoral researcher in the group of Dr. S.A.J. Zaat. In 2010, he started his PhD project within NANTICO. From 2014 to 2016, he worked as a research associate within the BALI consortium. Currently, he works in the same group on the abovementioned CRANIOSAFE, SUPERACTIVE and GDST projects. Moreover, he is involved in the PRINT-AID, NESDAP, DARTBAC and STIMULUS consortia. Since November 2014, he was active member and management committee substitute for the Netherlands of the COST Action iPROMEDAI. In 2015 and 2018, he coordinated the iPROMEDAI Summer School on ‘Antimicrobial Medical Devices’ a joint undertaking of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University Medical Center Groningen (Dr. J. Sjollema) and the AMC. Together with Aldona Mzyk (IMIM PAN, Kraków, Poland), he organized the iPROMEDAI Young Scientist Forum in 2017 in Thessaloniki, Greece. This forum was targeted to early stage researchers in the field of advanced antimicrobial biomaterials and provided interactive discussion sessions on topics like career opportunities, funding and scientific communication. Moreover, he was vice chair of the COST Action AMiCI (antimicrobial coating innovations). Lastly, he is management committee member of the COST Action ENIUS (European network of multidisciplinary research to improve the urinary stents). His research has resulted in 25 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and several items in (inter)national media. He has presented his research during many (inter)national conferences and invited lectures. Presently, Martijn is work package leader ‘building scientific excellence’ within CEMBO.
Leonie de Boer, MSc. is senior research technician in the group of Dr. S.A.J. Zaat. She participated in many of the aforementioned research projects over the years, coordinating and performing experimental activities including mouse infection studies. She is also actively involved in organizing workshop and course activities.