Biosketch

Geert van den Bogaart is a trained molecular biologist (MSc, 2004) and biochemist (PhD, 2008). Both degrees he received with the highest distinction, cum laude. Funded by a long-term fellowship from the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP), he completed a postdoctoral study at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Göttingen, Germany). In 2012, he started his own group in Molecular Immunology at the Department of Tumor Immunology, Radboud UMC (Nijmegen, Netherlands). In 2018, Geert was appointed full professor in Molecular Immunology at the University of Groningen. His laboratory studies the cell biology of dendritic cells and macrophages of the immune system. His main current research interests include:

• The organelle trafficking mechanisms of cytokine production: elucidating how signaling of newly synthesized cytokines in transit to the plasma membrane affect cytokine production levels.

• The role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) on T cell activation: determining how the high levels of ROS produced by dendritic cells and macrophages upon pathogen recognition, affect the uptake, processing and presentation of antigens.

• Development of quantitative tools for studying organelle trafficking, ROS production and T cell activation mechanisms. His lab developed a Förster resonance energy transfer-fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FRET-FLIM)-based technique for quantitative visualization of organelle trafficking. His lab also developed a novel assay for sensitive detection of T cells in complex cellular mixtures.

Three top publications 2017-2022

1. Linders PTA, Gerretsen E, ……, ter Beest M, Lefeber D & van den Bogaart G (2021) Congenital disorder of glycosylation caused by starting site-specific variant in syntaxin-5. Nature Communications 12: 6227; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26534-y

Discovery of the first mutation in an alternative starting codon causing human disease. In collaboration with Dr Lefeber (Radboud UMC), we identified patients with a missense substitution in the second starting methionine of the gene coding for the SNARE-protein Syntaxin-5, causing early fatal multisystem disease. Using a novel FRET-FLIM based technique, it was found that ER-Golgi trafficking was dysfunctional due to loss of the Syntaxin-5-short isoform.

2. Verboogen DRJ, Revelo NH, ter Beest M & van den Bogaart G (2018) Interleukin-6 secretion is limited by self-signaling in endosomes. Journal of Molecular Cell Biology 11: 144-157. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jmcb/mjy038

First prove that the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 signals while in-transit to the plasma membrane. This provides self-regulation of the production of interleukin-6 during cytokine storms.

3. Verboogen DJR, González Mancha N, ter Beest M & van den Bogaart G (2017) Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy reveals rerouting of SNARE trafficking driving dendritic cell activation. (2017) eLife 6: e23525; DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.23525

Invention of a new FRET-FLIM-based technique for the quantitative visualization of the SNARE-complexes that release cytokines. This is an important new technique in the organelle trafficking field. We made the plasmids available at the non-profit repository Addgene, from where they have been requested >100 times (Addgene-Blue Flame Award 2022).