prof.dr. NJHP (Nico) Claassens

Nico J. Claassens is a Full Professor at the Laboratory of Microbiology, The Netherlands. A core activity of his Microbial Synthetic Genetics and Metabolism group is to develop more rational ways of engineering metabolism in bacteria and synthetic cells. A large research line in his group focuses on designing and engineering synthetic pathways to support the more efficient use of sustainable feedstocks, including CO2, hydrogen and reduced one-carbon-substrates formate, and methanol. With his research he wants to contribute to the development of biotechnology to produce carbon-based products more sustainbly using e.g. CO2 and green electricity as abundant feedstocks. A specific product class he is interested in is the production of food proteins and other food substances. Another key research line of his team is to study how genes and genomes can be designed and build more rationally to realize new features in living and 'synthetic cells', this research is linked to the large national consortia: BaSyC-Gravitation program and the SUMMIT-EVOLF program, both funded by NWO.

After obtaining his PhD at Wageningen University in 2017, Nico worked as Postdoctoral Fellow from 2017 till 2019 at the Max Planck Institute Potsdam, Germany with Dr. Arren Bar-Even, supported by a Rubicon fellowship of the Dutch Science Organisation (NWO). In 2020 he became Assistant Professor at Wageningen Univeristy, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2023 before promotion to full professor in 2026. Nico's research is support amongts other funding by an NWO-Veni (2019),  NWO-Vidi grant (2024) and an ERC Starting Grant (2024). Nico has a broad experience in teaching, e.g. by coordinating the iGEM Synthetic Biology competition team and teaching in several courses at Wageningen University as well as co-organizing the biyearly Synthetic Biology in Action course at EMBO.

Nico was awarded several (inter)national prizes for his and his team's work: NVBMB Prize (2022, Dutch Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology), Kluyver Award (2024, Royal Dutch Microbiology Society KVNM) and the Bailey Young Investigator Award in Metabolic Engineering (2025, International Metabolic Engineering Society). In 2026 Nico became a member of De Jonge Akademie (Dutch Young Academy) in which he strives for a more equal, more effective, and more pleasant academic culture in The Netherlands.

• Farmless (1-6-2023/31-12-2099)
  advisor on microbial cultivation of methylotrophs