Contributing to virology research through the Rob Goldbach Fund

The goal of the Rob Goldbach Fund is to support and promote Wageningen virology and to contribute to the prevention or control virus diseases in plants and animals.

The impact of your gift

Wageningen University & Research is the birthplace of Virology having offered this discipline over the past 125 years. Many students, PhD students, (guest) staff and national and international visitors have contributed to the fame of the ‘Wageningen Virology’.

Your donation makes it possible for the fund to support researchers and (guest) staff financially when undertaking a field trip, visiting an exhibition or conference or in conducting specific scientific research- and education activities for the Virology Chair Group of Wageningen University.

Furthermore, your donation to the fund allows the chair group to organise seminars about this topic. The biennial Rob Goldbach Lecture is an example of this. 

Why the Rob Goldbach Fund?

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Prof. Rob Goldbach was a figure head of Dutch virology and also meant a lot to Wageningen virology. He was professor Virology at Wageningen University & Research from 1986 until his death in 2009. He was very involved with the students and PhD students and always stimulated them to make a fundamental contribution in solving virology problems in an international setting.

The fund was established by his wife Evelien Goldbach in 2010: “Rob was in the middle of his career when he died. Honouring his enthusiasm led me to establish this fund in his memory.”

Trustees

The Rob Goldbach Fund Board of Trustees is comprised of:

  • Prof. Dr. Monique van Oers
    Laboratory of Virology, Wageningen University & Research
  • Drs. Onno Goldbach
  • Dr.ir. Richard J. M. Kormelink
    Laboratory of Virology, Wageningen University & Research

Rob Goldbach Virology Lectures

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2018 – Prof. Dr Michael R. Strand : Regents Professor, Department of Entomology, Univ. of Georgia, Athens, USA.

“EVOLUTION, FUNCTION AND ENDOGENIZATION: LESSONS LEARNED FROM VIRUS ASSOCIATIONS WITH PARASITIC INSECTS”

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2016 – Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD, The Herbert S. Gasser Professor, Departments of Medicine, Molecular Microbiology, Pathology & Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, USA

“NEW INSIGHTS INTO ZIKA VIRUS PATHOGENESIS”

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2014 – Prof. Dr Marilyn Roossinck, Professor, Plant Pathology and environmental Microbiology, Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Pennsylvania State University, USA.

“PLANT VIRUS ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION: PATHOGENS TO MUTUALISTS”

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2012 – Sir Prof. Dr David Baulcomb, Regius Professor of Botany and Royal Society Research Professor, Cambridge University, UK

“PLANT VERSUS VIRUS: DEFENSE, COUNTER DEFENSE AND COUNTER COUNTER DEFENSE”

Goldbach MSc Thesis prize

The Goldbach MSc Thesis prize is a continuation of the Van der Want MSc Thesis prize and is awarded to an MSc student who was written an excellent thesis in the area of virological research. The prize is awarded during the Rob Goldbach Lecture. The winner of the prize gives a twenty minute account about his/her research in advance of the lecture.

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Joyce van Bree has been awarded with the Rob Goldbach Virology MSc thesis prize 2020. She identified a number of antiviral mosquito proteins that bound to a highly-stuctured RNA molecule derived from the West Nile and ZIKA virus genome. This RNA structure is required for efficient transmission of these viruses by mosquitoes. Her results were published in a recent paper, on which she was the second author, quite an achievement for a master student. Her thesis supervisors were Giel Göertz and Gorben Pijlman. Joyce has recently started her PhD study in the Laboratoy of Virology.

Previous winners of the thesis prize are:

2018 Erick Bermúdez Méndez: Development of neutralizing nanobody complexes using bacterial superglues.

2017   Sandra Abbo: Development and optimisation of vaccines against Zika virus, Ross River virus and Chikungunya virus.

2015   Jim Baggen: Chikungunya virus nsP3: Intracellular localization and interaction with host and viral proteins.

2013   Mark Sterken: The structure – function relations of the West Nile virus 3’UTR.

2009   Iris Dautzenberg: Binding capacity of Reovirus σ1 mutant proteins to artificial cell receptors in vitro.

2007   Sabine van der Sanden: Expression of tick antigens for vaccine purposes in the baculovirus expression system.

Applications