Dr. Alex Bossers (linkedin) is a senior scientist in molecular cell biology and (meta)genomics applications in the One Health and Environmental genomics research domain. Due to his broad interests, he is typically involved in many projects involving metagenomics analysis of humans and animals and their interface.
Alex joined the One Health microbial agents group at the Institute of Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS, Utrecht University) as a full-time assistant professor in March 2021 keeping a joint part-time position as a multi-omics expertise team lead at Wageningen BioVeterinary Research (part of Wageningen University and Research).
Alex has been a long time prioneer in the molecular (cell)biology of neurodegenrative prion diseases, which started with finishing his PhD in 1999 on the transmissibility and susceptibility of prion diseases at the molecular level (Utrecht University) and ended-up being a group lead for prion research at WBVR for many years.
From molecular prion biology he moved into (meta)genomics and specialized himself in bioinformatics (MSc; University of Manchester, UK) and subsequently set-up and lead a group on multi-omics and data analytics at WBVR with specific focus on understanding disease pathogenesis and identification of vaccine/diagnostic biomarkers. The last few years his research shifted more into molecular epidemiology and (meta)genomics applications to further unravel the signals coming from microbiomes, resistomes and pathobiomes in general.
His current cross-over position at IRAS and WBVR enables him to effectively combine research within the Human, Environmental and Animal pillars of One Health. Typical projects include the VGO3 project where metagenomics is used to identify and profile pathogens (bacterial, fungal and viral) on and around goat farms and its close environment, to identify links with acquired pneumonia in humans. Another focus field is the use and analysis of environmental DNA (eDNA) to for instance assess biosecurity in and around farms.
Alex has a wide experience in setting-up and coordinating public-private partnership projects, he is board member of the Dutch KNVM division microbial genomics, and is currently listed on over 200 peer-reviewed publications.
Besides his passion for research, he is a full-stack software developer for the Survivalrun Bond Nederland (part-time) and in his free-time he is a guitar-noise maker and addicted to ultra-trailing and adventure racing.