New Scientific Director ERIBA

Folkert Kuipers PhD (1957) will act as Scientific Director of ERIBA and head of the Department of the Biology of Ageing at the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) from August 1^st, 2022. Folkert studied biology/biochemistry at the University of Groningen (UoG) and received his PhD degree in Medical Sciences at UoG in 1987. After a research fellowship from the Royal Netherlands Academy for Arts and Sciences and an Established Investigatorship from the Netherlands Heart Foundation, he was appointed as Professor of Pediatrics in 2000 and was Head of the Laboratory of Pediatrics at UMCG from 2000-2008 and 2016-2022. His research program deals with molecular (dys) regulation of cholesterol, bile acid and lipid metabolism and transport in liver and intestine in inherited and age-related metabolic diseases, including roles of the gut microbiome. He is (co-)author of >350 peer-reviewed publications and has supervised >40 PhD theses. From 2008-2016 he served as Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences/UMCG and was involved in initiation and implementation of the Healthy Ageing program at UMCG, with population cohort Lifelines and ERIBA as scientific flagship projects. He is member of the External Adivisory Boards of the Robert and Arlene Kogod Center for Aging Research, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA, the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Longevity, Institut Pasteur de Lille, Lille, France, and the Multidisciplinary Institute for Ageing (MIA), University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.