Prof. Johan Kuiper will retire as of November 1st 2024 after 40 years of research and education
On November 1st, 2024, professor Johan Kuiper will retire and be appointed as emeritus professor at Leiden University. Since November 2008, Johan Kuiper was professor of Therapeutic Immunomodulation in the division of, at that time, Biopharmaceutics (which later on became the division of BioTherapeutics) at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research.
Johan has a long and impressive career in preclinical cardiovascular research. He started his scientific profession as a biology student, specializing in biochemistry and immunology at the University of Groningen. After his graduation in 1984, he obtained his PhD from Leiden University in 1989, with his thesis entitled “Cellular communication between parenchymal, Kupffer and endothelial liver cells”. He then continued his career as a post-doc and assistant professor in the Biopharmaceutics division, headed by Prof. Theo van Berkel, where he started his own research group focussing on immunomodulation of inflammatory responses that lead to the development of atherosclerotic plaques. The regulation of pro-inflammatory immune responses by various strategies such as tolerance induction and vaccination against atherosclerosis was his main topic of research. In 2007, he became Programme Director at LACDR, where he was responsible for educational programmes of both the BSc and MSc Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences. In 2011, he became head of the division of BioTherapeutics and member of LACDRs management team.
During his career, Johan received many national and international research grants. He was appointed Established Investigator of the Netherlands Heart Foundation and led the national atherosclerosis consortia GENIUS I and GENIUS II, funded by the Dutch Heart Foundation and the Dutch Cardiovascular Alliance. In addition, he coordinated the EU-funded project VIA (Vaccination In Atherosclerosis).
Johan successfully supervised many PhD candidates at the start of their scientific careers, and many of them continued in academia, or pharmaceutical industry. Furthermore, he significantly contributed to grant successes of colleagues at the division by sharing his knowledge and expertise. Recent highlights are a number of well-cited papers of his group, where the immune responses in human atherosclerosis tissue are characterized in detail (Circ Res 2020, Nature CVR 2023).
In July 2022, Johan suffered from a stroke, ironically caused by the disease he worked on his entire professional life, which led to a sudden absence in the group, a long revalidation and unfortunately, early retirement.
In the division, Johan is known for his empathy for his colleagues and group members. There was always time for a talk, a question or a cup of coffee. He put the needs of his group members before his own and actively supported young researchers to pursue a career in science.
Johan is passionate about sports and an avid Feyenoord and FC Groningen fan. Before the stroke he was an active cyclist and ice skater. When most of his compatriots travel to Alps to ski or snowboard, Johan and his wife Ella would travel to Sweden or Norway and make long tracks on the frozen lakes or fjords. Also, he would regularly commute from his home in Gouda to the Gorlaeus Laboratories on his race bike. On his initiative he took along several BioTherapeutics colleagues on a 600 km ride from the Hague to Paris, to raise funds for the Dutch Heart Foundation (see photo).
As an emeritus professor, Johan will remain involved in the finalization of projects of a number of the PhD students at BioTherapeutics.
