NIOO-KNAW

The Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW)

The Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) is the Program Leader and Head Office of PROMISE and can be contacted at: promise@nioo.knaw.nl or +31 (0)317 473467. Within the institute, the following people are involved:

Prof. Jos M. Raaijmakers- Program Coordinator
Jos is head of the Microbial Ecology department at NIOO-KNAW and specialises in microbiome research - in particular metagenomics and microbial ecology of soil and plant-associated microorganisms. Jos is associated as professor to Leiden University.

Prof. Wietse de Boer Principal Investigator 
Wietse is senior researcher at the department of Microbial Ecology. Since 1 March 2012, he is also connected as special Professor in Microbial Soil Ecology to the Wageningen University, department of Soil Quality.

Prof. Eiko Kuramae  - Principal Investigator 
Eiko is a senior researcher at the department of Microbial Ecology. Here expertise areas are Soil microbial ecology, Genomics, Environmental genomics, Bioinformatics and Microbial network.

Mahdere Shimels– Researcher
Mahdere is a researcher in Promise and has an expertise in biochemistry, microbiology and bioinformatics. She also is specialized in plant-microbe interactions. In Promise I she worked as a postdoc, but now in Promise II she will coordinate  the workpackage focused on bacterial strains. She will also focus on the taxonomic and functional analysis of the sorghum root microbiome. 

Dominika Rybka - Technician
Dominika is working on the project  as a technician, focusing on the taxonomic and functional analysis of the sorghum root microbiome. 

Jose G. Maciá-Vicente – Postdoc
Jose’s expertise includes fungal biology, microbial ecology, and phytopathology. His main role within Promise II is to develop and test fungal-derived products for effectively controlling Striga

Luisa M. Arias Giraldo– PhD student/Bioinformatician
Luisa works mostly as a PhD student but also providing bioinformatics support for the rest of the team in terms of analysis and data management. Her PhD project is called “Risk assessment of novel control strategies of the parasitic weed Striga in sub-Saharan Africa”.

Maria Hundscheid - Technician
Maria will be invovled in Workpackage 1, testing the candidates for substrates and strigacidal volatiles. 

Lhais Caldas - Research Assistant
Working on the chemical and metabolomics analysis of organic materials used for stimulation of Striga-supressive volatile production
in soil.