Robert Kleemann
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RESEARCH AREA
I am trained as a biochemist (universities Tübingen, Freiburg, Stuttgart) and specialized in the fields of metabolism and inflammation for pharmacology and nutrition research. I have ample experience in mechanisms underlying metabolic and cardiovascular diseases (2020: >120 publications; >12,000 citations; H-factor: 56), and biomedical technologies (biomarker research, gene-regulation and omics).
My research interest encompass pharmacological and nutritional strategies to reduce the burden of metabolic-inflammatory diseases of citizens such as fatty liver disease, obesity, diabetes, atherosclerosis, frailty and brain disorders. I am associated to respective clinical and nutritional academic groups at LUMC (Associate Professor at Dept. Vascular Surgery) and WUR (Dept. Human and Animal Physiology). I advocate holistic health concepts considering the interplay of organs including brain and psycho-social stressors, and stimulate new out-of-the box approaches that challenge the status-quo and deliver mechanism-based evidence. I believe in direct interactions with stakeholders, a proactive attitude of TNO seniors for acquisition of shared research and B2B-projects.
I am currently conducting projects with VUmc, Radboudmc, UMCG, MUmc, and AMC op topics ranging from childhood obesity to liver and brain inflammation to preclinical model development. The stakeholders for this type of research are predominantly large (global) pharmaceutical industries, nutrition industries, patient-organizations and diagnostic companies. As a consequence, most research projects involve partners in the US, UK, Germany, France, Japan, Norway etc.
RECENT RESULTS
As Principal Scientist I established large strategic programs and international consortia involving multiple TNO disciplines and excellent groups at the aforementioned industries and universities. These consortia were sponsored by TopSectors (e.g.LSH), EU (e.g., H2020,EFRO), government (e.g., ERPs) or national agencies such as the Norwegian Food Sector.
In the past 3 years, I initiated the following large projects:
- Public-Private Partnership ‘ProLiver’: improves metabolic health by combining new nutrition and pharma approaches;
- Public-Private Partnership ‘Muscle Health’: unravels whether men and women develop frailty via different mechanisms;
- Early Research Program ‘Body-Brain Interactions’: develops human and preclinical platforms required to improve cognitive function.
The projects are interdisciplinary and involve groups from all over the world with TNO scientists from units Healthy Living, Optica and at Defence, Safety and Security. I am responsible for acquisition of new projects, presenting new innovations at conferences and stakeholders, and the scientific dissemination of the aforementioned work.
PHD SUPERVISION
- Eveline Gart (TKI/Agri-Food project Proliver & TNO VP)
- Florine Seidel (ERP BodyBrainInteractions)
- Jelle de Jong (TKI-LSH)
Not main responsible but involved in 4 other PhD trajectories at WUR, AMC-VUmc, Radboudmc and MUmc.
TOP PUBLICATIONS
- C. Morrison; L. Verschuren; K. Salic; J. Verheij; A. Menke; P. Y. Wielinga; M. Iruarrizaga-Lejarreta; L. Gole; W. Yu; S. Turner; M. Caspers; I. Martínez-Arranz; S. Lu; E. Pieterman; R. Stoop; A. van Koppen; A. M. van den Hoek; J. M. Mato; R. Hanemaaijer; C. Alonso and R. Kleemann. OCA modulates serum metabolites and gene signatures characteristic for human NASH and attenuates inflammation and fibrosis progression in Ldlr-/-.Leiden mice. Hepatol.Commun., 2018
- Anita M. van den Hoek, Gerben C.M. Zondag, Lars Verschuren, Christa de Ruiter, Joline Attema, Elly C. de Wit, Anne M.K. Schwerk, Bruno Guigas, Serene Lek, Annemarie Rietman, Rein Strijker and Robert Kleemann. A novel nutritional supplement prevents muscle loss and accelerates muscle mass recovery in caloric-restricted mice. Metabolism, 2019.
- Laurentya O., van Diepen J, Bobeldijk-Pastorova I, Gross G, Prentice PM, Kooistra T, Hughes IA, Schoemaker M, Wielinga P, Ong KK, Dunger DB, Koulman A, and Kleemann R. SCD1, FADS1, and FADS2 activities as candidate biomarkers of early life growth and adiposity (submitted to Nature Metabolism, 2020)
LINKS
- https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OVFQM2gAAAAJ&hl=en