chemistry

Oscar Kuipers

Oscar Kuipers is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Oscar Kuipers rather than just read about it. In short: Oscar Paul Kuipers (Rotterdam, May 12, 1956) is a Dutch professor of molecular genetics at the University of Groningen. His areas of expertise include microbiology, biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, and biotechnology.

Key takeaways

Oscar Kuipers belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Oscar Kuipers to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Oscar Kuipers from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Oscar Paul Kuipers (Rotterdam, May 12, 1956) is a Dutch professor of molecular genetics at the University of Groningen. His areas of expertise include microbiology, biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, and biotechnology.

Study and career Kuipers graduated in 1986 in biology at Utrecht University. In 1988 Kuipers obtained an EMBO Fellowship for three month at the lab of Dr. J. Gallay of the University of Paris-Sud in Orsay (Paris) to study time-resolved Fluorescence. In 1989 Kuipers received a SHELL fellowship to give lectures in the United States at Prof. Mahendra Jain (Newark), Prof. Michael Gelb (Seattle) and Prof. Yang (San Francisco) and on a conference about Time Resolved Fluorescence. In 1990 Kuipers obtained his doctorate at the University of Utrecht in biochemistry with the thesis Probing the mechanism of pancreatic phospholipase A2 by protein engineering. From 1990 to 1997 he worked as a project leader on molecular genetics at the Department of Biophysical Chemistry of NIZO food research, a contract research center in Ede (The Netherlands). From 1997 to 1999 he was head of genetics and research leader of the section Microbial Ingredients of the same institute. From 1999 Kuipers is professor and head of the ‘Molecular Genetics of Prokaryotes’ group of the Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute (GBB) of the University of Groningen.

Honours and awards 2015 elected board member, European Academy of Microbiology (EAM) 2013 elected member, European Academy of Microbiology (EAM) 2012 iGEM Team Groningen: European and World Champion 2012 (Kuipers was supervisor/coach/coordinator of the iGEM team Groningen from 2008-2015) 2011 elected member, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) 2011 Simon Stevin Meester Award (Science and Technology Award of STW, NWO, the Netherlands) €500,000

Administrative and management functions 1999 – 2000 member of the founding committee of the Groningen Genomics Centre of the University of Groningen 1999 – 2007 member of the board of directors of the Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute (GBB) of the University of Groningen 2000 – 2007 chairman of the Genetics Cluster of the University of Groningen 2011 – present member of the scientific advisory board of the LOEWE Institute for Synthetitic Microbiology (Synmikro) in Marburg (Germany) 2013 – present confidential advisor on scientific integrity, Faculty of Mathematics- and Natural Sciences, University of Groningen Groningen 2015 – present chairman and co-founder of the Centre for Sustainable Antimicrobials (CeSAM) of the University of Groningen 2015 – present cofounder, Centre for Antimicrobial Research (CARES). Chairman & Director: Prof. Gilles van Wezel.

Research The research of Kuipers and his research group is focused on curiosity driven research with a keen eye on biotechnological applications. Kuipers has so far supervised 21 postdoctoral researchers and 35 PhD students in their doctorate research. At the moment (October 2015) he supervises 18 PhD students and 7 postdoctoral researchers. He has been invited more than 180 times to national and international conferences, seminars and congresses to give a lecture. An important topic of research is the study of the genetics and physiology of bacteria. Among others, the cellular differentiation of bacteria is investigated. Bacteria growing in a culture can develop different characteristics, while their genome remains unchanged. Kuipers stated: ‘Our research has many applications, for example the improvement of protein production in industrial fermentation'. Another important subject is the production and modification of peptides. These modified peptides (called lantibiotics), are made by bacteria, and can serve as antibiotic. Modified peptides are chemically more stable and retain their function longer than unmodified peptides. This is beneficial for medical applications as a novel class of antibiotics. Further areas of focus are the molecular biology of: competence, sporulation and bistability in Bacillus subtilis, the reconstruction of gene networks, antimicrobial peptides, antibiotics, mechanisms of pathogenesis, cell wall anchoring, controlled gene expression systems, the subcellular localization of protein, stress response, quorum sensing, regulation of the C- and N-metabolism, natural gene transfer methodologies, plant-biocontrol by Bacilli and Biotechnology applications.

Research for industry 2014 – 2017 Corbion, Corbion Thermophiles. Prime investigator €530k 2010-2013 Purac, Competence in industrial Bacillus strains. Prime investigator €420k 2004 – 2007 DSM Bakery Ingredients B.V. Sense: Screening for protein secretion using secretion stress indicators. Prime investigator €640k 2001 – 2005 Frico + DSM Directing Starters Together 2 (several partners). Prime investigator €554k 2000 – 2006 Intervet International B.V. Expression of heterologous proteins in Bacillus. Prime investigator €433k

Research by bachelor and master students From 2008 Kuipers is supervisor, coach and coordinator of the iGEM student team Groningen. iGEM is a worldwide competition in the field of synthetic biology between teams of students from all over the world. The team from Groningen won in the annual in Boston (United States) organized international competition several gold medals (2008 to 2016). In 2012, when the team from Groningen became world champion, the research concerned a study of an alternative method to determine whether food is spoiled: the Food warden . This method makes use of genetic engineered bacteria responsive to the volatiles of the decomposing meat. A pigment makes the decomposition visible.

Publications Prof. dr. O.P. Kuipers published 365 articles in scientific papers, 2 books and 18 chapters in books. 34 publications appeared in 2015. Kuipers articles have been cited over 26 148 times and he has a H-index of 84 and an i10 index of 278. This means that 80 of his articles have been cited at least 80 times and that 278 articles have been cited more than 10 times.

An overview of the most significant publications of Oscar Kuipers.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Oscar Kuipers

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Oscar Kuipers claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Oscar Kuipers before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Oscar Kuipers ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Oscar Kuipers

In research: Oscar Kuipers appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Oscar Kuipers in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Oscar Kuipers is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1956 births, 20th-century Dutch chemists, 21st-century Dutch chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Oscar Kuipers outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Oscar Kuipers in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Oscar Kuipers means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Oscar Kuipers out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Oscar Kuipers in simple terms?

Why does Oscar Kuipers matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Oscar Kuipers?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Oscar Kuipers.