Alexander Kros uses supramolecular approaches in a biological environment. His main interest is in understanding the underlying fundamentals of membrane fusion in Nature using model systems and utilize the obtained knowledge to design new drug delivery tools.

More information about Alexander Kros

Curriculum Vitae

Personal information

Nationality:   Dutch
Date of birth:   4 June 1969

Education

2000   PhD, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, 20 December 2000. Thesis title: “Amperometric Biosensors Based on Conducting Nanotubes”
Advisor: Prof. R.J.M. Nolte
1995   MSc in Chemistry, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands 

Current and previous research positions

2016 – now    Full Professor and group leader of SBC, Dept. Supramolecular & Biomaterials Chemistry, Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden University, The Netherlands
2009 – 2016   Associate Professor, Dept. Soft Matter Chemistry, Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden University, The Netherland
2002 – 2009   Assistant Professor, Dept. Soft Matter Chemistry, Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden University, The Netherland
2000 – 2001   Research Fellow, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA

Grants, awards, recognitions since 2016

2022    NWO XL (M€ 3), with NKI and AMC
2021    NWO XS (k€ 50)
2021    NWO Groot investering (M€ 2), co-applicant with TUE
2020    Cofund OLife (k€ 664) 
2019    DSM Nutrional Products AG, Switzerland (k€ 103)
2018    PPS programma Immunologie “afweer in balans”, Consortium budget (M€ 5)
2018    KWF (k€ 420), with AMC
2017    TKI-programmatoeslag (k€ 35)
2017    NWA Origin fellowship (k€ 200)
2017    Huygens fellowship (k€ 200)
2016    M-ERA (k€ 613), with NIC and TUE

Contribution to teaching and supervision

• Courses for MSc Chemical Biology at Leiden University: Supramolecular Chemistry and Biomaterials

Promotor of >60 PhD students and 6 postdoctoral fellows since 2010.

Other responsibilities

• Organisation of scientific meetings
• 2022 Co-organizer for Origins Center conference, the Netherlands
• 2022 Co-organizer for Kroese-Duijsters Symposium, the Netherlands
• 2018 Co-organizer of the focus session on peptide assemblies, the national CHAINS symposium 
• 2017 Co-chair of the 253^rd ACS National Meeting & Exposition, April 2-6, 2017, San Francisco, CA. Polymeric Materials: Sciences and Engineering (PMSE) Symposium on Molecular Engineering of Peptide Assembly, USA
• 2017 Co-organizer of the Alpbach workshop on Coiled-coil, fibrous and repeat proteins. 3-8 September 2017, Alpbach, Austria

Institutional responsibilities (selection)

• 2017 - to date Member China working group of the Faculty of Science (UL), representing LIC 
• 2015 - to date Chair exam committee for the MSc programme in Chemistry
• 2013 - to date Member exam committee MSc programmes Chemistry and Life Science & Technology (UL)
• 2009 - to date Member Scientific Council (WERA) of the Leiden Institute of Chemistry

Reviewing activities and commissions of trust

• 2021 - to date Member of Advisory Committee Chemistry of Life for the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). This advisory committee gives solicited and unsolicited advice to the board of the NWO Science domain on proposals for new (funding) programmes. The committee also has a monitoring role regarding the progress of ongoing programmes.
• 2010 - to date  Panel member for ERC AdG2010, ERC AdG 2012, ERC StG 2015 & 2017, ERAsynbio grants 2014, NWO Echo grants 2015, 2016, 2017. (Externally) reviewed proposals for the ERC (all levels), H2020 FET OPEN, Israel Science Foundation and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), DFG, BBRSC and the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
• 2010 - to date Examiner of PhD graduations (about 5-10/year) in the Netherlands and internationally (e.g.  Denmark, Austria, UK, India, Israel).
• 2010 - to date Reviewer for high impact journals like Nature Chemistry, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, NanoLetters, Angewandte Chemie, JACS, ACS nano, Chemical Science and other monodisciplinary organic chemistry, materials and chemical biology journals.

Publication record including recent representative publications

>200 papers with >9000 citations, H-index 53 (Google Scholar)

Full publication record: Google Scholar, ORCiD

Selected publications:

• G. Arias-Alpizar, P. Padopoulou, X. Rios, K. Reddy Pulagam, M.-A. Moradi, R. Pattipeiluhu, J. Bussmann, N. Sommerdijk, J. Llop, A. Kros, F. Campbell. Phase-separated liposomes hijack endogenous lipoprotein transport and metabolism pathways to target subsets of endothelial cells in vivo. Adv. Healthc. Mat. 2023, 2202709. DOI: 10.1002/adhm.202202709
• J. van Strien, O. Escalona-Rayo, W. Jiskoot, B. Slütter, A. Kros. Elastin-like polypeptide-based micelles as a promising platform in nanomedicine. J. Control. Release 2023, 353, 713-726. DOI: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2022.12.033
• E.O. Bobylev, Y. Zeng, K. Weijgertse, E. Koelman, E. Meijer, B. de Bruin, A. Kros, J.N.H. Reek. The application of M12L24 nanocages as cell-specific siRNA delivery agents in vitro. CHEM 2023, Accepted. DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4266341
• R. Pattipeiluhu, G. Arias-Alpizar, G. Basha, J. Bussmann, T.H. Sharp, M.A. Moradi, P.R. Cullis, A. Kros, D. Witzigmann F. Campbell. Anionic lipid nanoparticles preferentially deliver mRNA to the hepatic reticuloendothelial system. Adv. Mater. 2022 34, 2201095. DOI: 10.1002/adma.202201095
• R. Kapteijn, S. Shitut, D. Aschmann, L. Zhang, A. Akiva, M. de Beer, R. Roverts, D. Daviran, G.P. van Wezel, A. Kros, D. Claessen. Endocytosis-like DNA uptake by cell wall-deficient bacteria reveals a putative ancient macromolecule uptake mechanism. Nature Commun. 2022, 13, 5524. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33054-w
• G.A. Daudey, M. Shen, A. Singhal, P. van der Est, G.J.A. Sevink, A.L. Boyle, and A. Kros. Liposome fusion with orthogonal coiled coil peptides as fusogens: The efficacy of roleplaying peptides. Chemical Science 2021, 12, 13782 - 13792. DOI: 10.1039/D0SC06635D
• G. Arias-Alpizar, L. Kong, R. Vlieg, A. Rabe, P. Papadopoulou, M.S. Meijer, S. Bonnet, S. Vogel, J. van Noort, A. Kros and Frederick Campbell. Light-triggered switching of liposome surface charge directs the intracellular delivery of membrane impermeable payloads in vivo. Nature Communications 2020, 11, 3638. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17360-9
• R. Pattipeiluhu, S. Crielaard, I. Klein-Schiphorst, B.I. Florea, A. Kros and F. Campbell. Unbiased identification of the liposome protein corona using photoaffinity based chemoproteomics. ACS Central Science 2020, 6, 535-545. DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.9b01222
• E.A. Egorova, M.M.J. van Rijt, N.A.J.M. Sommerdijk, G.S. Gooris, J.A. Bouwstra, A.L. Boyle, and A. Kros. One peptide for them all? Gold nanoparticles of different sizes are stabilized by a common peptide amphiphile, ACS Nano 2020, 14, 5874-5886. DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.0c01021
• L. Kong, Q. Chen, F. Campbell, E. Snaar-Jagalska and A. Kros. Light triggered, cancer cell-specific liposome fusion and drug delivery in vivo. Adv. Healthc. Mat. 2020, 1901489. DOI: 10.1002/adhm.201901489
• L. Kong, F. Campbell and A. Kros*. DePEGylation strategies to increase cancer nanomedicine efficacy. Nanoscale Horizons, 2019, 4, 378-387. https://doi.org/10.1039/C8NH00417J
• F. Campbell, S. Sieber, E. van Rooijen, F.L. Bos, H. Zope, J. Shih, L.I. Zone, J. Huwyler, A. Kros and J. Bussmann. Directing Nanoparticle Biodistribution through Evasion and Exploitation of Stab2-Dependent Nanoparticle Uptake. ACS Nano 2018, 12, 2138−2150. DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.7b06995
  Chosen by ACS Nano editorial board as “Editors’ choice”. A perspective article was written in ACS Nano highlighting this work
• J. Yang, A. Bahreman, G. Daudey, J. Bussmann, R.C.L. Olsthoorn and A. Kros. Drug delivery via cell membrane fusion using lipopeptide modified liposomes. ACS Central Science 2016, 2, 621–630.  DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.6b00172
• J. Yang, Y. Shimada, R.C.L. Olsthoorn, B.E. Snaar-Jagalska, H.P. Spaink and A. Kros. Application of Coiled Coil Peptides in Liposomal Anti-Cancer Drug Delivery using a Zebrafish Xenograft Model. ACS Nano, 2016, 10, 7428–7435. DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.6b01410

Presentations including five presentations at international conferences since 2016

Alexander Kros presented >70 (keynote) invited lectures at prestigious conferences in the period 2012-2022. Some highlights are given here to illustrate the international recognition of my multidisciplinary approach to solve major challenges in the fields of lipids, self-assembly, drug delivery and biophysics. 

Selection of invited international conference lectures: Coiled Coils Workshop, Alpbach 2017 and 2022 (invited); 16th European Symposium on Controlled Drug Delivery, Netherlands, 6-9 April 2022 (invited plenary lecture);-ACS National meetings, USA 2011-2019 (11 times invited lecture, co-organizer in 2017; session presider in 2019) -European Symposia in Bio-organic Chemistry, Wales 2017 (Keynote) -BioOrigami symposium, Slovenia 2017 (Keynote) -The Royal Society Theo Murphy meeting, UK, 2016 (Invited) -ERC Grantees conference, NL 2016 and 2012  (Invited) -Biophysical Society National Meeting, USA 2015 (Symposium speaker) -Biomolecular Synthesis and Nanotechnology symposium, DK, 2015 (Invited Plenary) -Gordon Research Conference 2009 on Supramolecular chemistry and 2012 on Peptides, Chemistry & Biology (Invited lectures; Introduction & Discussion Leader).

Selection of international institutional seminars: Basel University, Bristol University, Caltech, Ludwig Maximillian University Munich, Max Planck Institute, Muenster University, RWTH Aachen, UCLA, UC Irvine, USC, TU Wien.  

Selected recent invited lectures:

• Membrane Packing Defects as a Novel Tool to Target Cells In Vivo. Invited lecture at Gordon Research Conference on Cancer Nanotechnology, Waterville Valley, NH, USA, June 11-16, 2023.
• Photocontrol of Peptide Self-Assembly and Catalytic Activity. Invited lecture at Materials Research Society spring meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA, April 10-14, 2023
• Peptides improve the lipid nanoparticle mediated delivery of mRNA. Invited lecture at Gordon Research Conference on peptide materials, Galveston, Tx, USA, Jan 15-20, 2023.
• Paracrystalline Inverted Lipid Phases Encapsulating siRNA Enhance Lipid Nanoparticle Mediated Transfection. Invited plenary lecture at 16th European Symposium on Controlled Drug Delivery, Egmond aan Zee, 6-9 April 2022.
• Coiled-coil peptide-mediated RNA delivery. Invited lecture at the Coiled-coil Workshop, Alpbach, September 4-9, 2022.