Johan Memelink
Professor
Plant cell physiology
Leiden University
Netherlands
Biography
I obtained my PhD at Leiden University in 1988 on gene expression studies in tobacco transformed with the cytokinin biosynthesis gene from Agrobacterium tumefaciens. After that I worked at the Leiden Institute of Molecular Plant Sciences first as a postdoc (1988 -1989) and later as a staff member leading research on the transcriptional regulation of terpenoid indole alkaloid biosynthesis in the medicinal plant Catharanthus roseus. In 1989 – 1990 I was a post-doctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Plant Molecular Biology at The Rockefeller University (NY, USA) with financial aid from the North-Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In 1993 I visited the same lab as a Fulbright fellow. In 2005 I was appointed professor in Plant Cell Physiology. Currently I am participating in the SmartCell consortium, a large collaborative project funded by the EU 7th Framework Program.
Research Interest
transcriptional regulation of terpenoid indole alkaloid biosynthesis in the medicinal plant Catharanthus roseus.
Publications
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Geerlings A., Redondo F.J., Memelink J., Contin A., Heijden R. van der & Verpoorte R. (1999), Screening method for cDNAs encoding putative enzymes converting loganin into secologanin by a transgenic yeast culture, Biotechnology Letters 13: 605-608.
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Zhou M. & Memelink J. (2016), Jasmonate-responsive transcription factors regulating plant secondary metabolism, BIOTECHNOLOGY ADVANCES 34(4): 441-449.
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Moerkercke A. van, Steensma P., Gariboldi I., Espoz J., Purnama P.C., Schweizer F., Miettinen K., Bossche R. van den, Clercq R. de, Memelink J. & Goossens A. (2016), The basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor BIS2 is essential for monoterpenoid indole alkaloid production in the medicinal plant Catharanthus roseus, PLANT JOURNAL 88(1): 3-12.
