Koen Van Acker Email & Phone Number

PUSHING PROJECTS IN ALIGNMENT WITH COMPANY NEEDS, FROM BASIC SCIENCE TO INDUSTRIAL OPERATION- high throughput screening platforms- discovery assays- sample preparation for diagnostic applicationsWORKING APPROACHES- Strong attention for leadership in a humble way. Small passionate teams taking full responsibility and becoming self policing.- Deconstruction of problems followed by incessant research for pragmatic solutions- Goal rather than task driven. Persistent to achieve the goal and walking the extra mile.- Helicopter view over projects but also guidance of the team for daily operational tasks.RELENTLESS INTEREST IN THE INTERFACE BETWEEN BIOLOGY AND INSTRUMENTATION• Mammalian cell culture (biosafety levels 1-3+) in the context of oncology, neurodegenerative disease parasitology, bacteriology and virology.• Luminescent and fluorescent reporter gene constructions applied to cells related to the disease areas.• Expression of recombinant proteins, the easy ones and the hard ones.• Extensive experience in flow cytometry: multiparametric phenotyping and cloning of HIV-1 infected cells.• Microscopy: (i) many benchtop inverted microscopes, (ii) development of a scanning microscope for fast reading of multiwell plates and (iii) automated scanning confocal microscopy.• Focus on fluorescence: fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, fluorescence lifetime detection, ultrasensitive time resolved fluorescence using lanthanide chelates.• Multi angle light scattering in multiwell plates and coupled to “flow field flow fractionation”.• Free flow electrophoresis to separate and isolate the complexity of plasma compartments.• Cell impedance assays in the context of viral entry.• Extensive experience in real time (multiplex) PCR and digital droplet (RT)-PCR.• Surface plasmon resonance (Biacore): binding of small molecules to protein ligand targets.• Extensive experience with the optimization of the biological activity of synthetic peptides.• Click chemistry in the oligonucleotide context.

Listed skills include Molecular Biology, Lifesciences, Biotechnology, Infectious Diseases, and 9 others.