Sybren de Hoog, The Netherlands

Personal info

• Name: G.S. de Hoog.
• Position: senior researcher.
• MSc Biology University of Utrecht, Feb 1970 cum laude.
• PhD Mycology Utrecht 1975.
• KNAW-Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures Fungal Biodiversity Centre, since 1970.
• Professor, Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, since 1992.
• Professor, Peking University Health Science Center, Research Center for Medical Mycology, Beijing, China, since 2009

Career Summary

Written over 400 refereed papers. Co-organiser and co-editor of editing of symposia on yeasts, yeast-like and medical fungi, leading to books and special issues: Amersfoort (1987: book ‘The Expanding Realm of Yeast-like Fungi; Elsevier), Atlanta (1992: special issue Antonie van Leeuwenhoek), Adelaide (1993), Veldhoven (1996), Vancouver (1994), Utrecht (2007: special issues of Studies in Mycology and Medical Mycology), Angers (2007: special issue of Medical Mycology), Bonn (2009: special issue of Mycoses), Ljubljana (2009: special issue of Fungal Biology). He was program chairman of the TIFI/ECMM congress in Amsterdam (2003). He has prepared an Atlas of Clinical Fungi (1126 pp., with J. Guarro, Reus, Spain), for which a CD-ROM versions with molecular data is available and will appear in Chinese in 2011, and wrote 14 chapters on filamentous yeasts for the book "The Yeasts" (eds C.P. Kurtzman, J.W. Fell & T. Boekhout). He worked several months as a guest professor at the Research Center for Pathogenic Fungi in Chiba, Japan. He has been managing editor of the journals 'Antonie van Leeuwenhoek' and presently of 'Mycoses' and ‘Mycopathologia’ and is member of the editorial board of Mycological Progress and of the PubMed facility Faculty of 1000. His teaching activities involve the international CBS Course on Medical Mycology for medical microbiologists, mycologists and laboratory technologists, and courses for biomedical students of the Universities of Amsterdam and Beijing. He established a privately financed fund for support of medical mycology in Africa and another for workers from developing countries.

Current focus

Area of interest is the taxonomy, ecology and evolution of black yeast-like fungi, with emphasis on possible lines of adaptation to the human host and applications in bioremediation. In general patterns of phylogeny of extremotolerance are analyzed in the light of remarkable physiological abilities of black yeasts.

Selected grants

• KNAW / China Academy Evolution of Virulence in Fungi (2 postdocs, 1 PhD).
• WOTRO Natural Life Cycle of Human Pathogens in Tropical Rain Forest (1 PhD).
• With M. Rinaldi (USA): Pfizer Grant Sequencing of Human Pathogenic Exophiala.
• EU-FES Barcoding (1 postdoc).
• Eu-Mouldarray (indoor fungi), EU-Curie (Scedosporium).
• Ministry of Health & Education of Iran (2 PhD).
• IBED Amsterdam (1 PhD).

Measure of esteem

Scientific secretary of the Netherlands Society for Human and Veterinary Mycology; member of the International Committee on Yeasts; former member of steering Committee European Confederation of Medical Mycology; president of the International Society of Human and Animal Mycology (2006-2009) and co-ordinator of two of its Working Groups

Expertise

Our research group has a leading position in black yeast research and recognized the problem of potential occupational health problems of fungi in biofilters for the first time. Our recent research has refined and mitigated the problem: we discovered the existence of alkylbenzene-assimilating fungi as siblings of human-opportunistic species. Our ecological research on black yeasts focuses on the natural behavior of species, which has enabled us to predict their practical applicability. We also discovered the frequent association of the same organisms in BTEX-polluted soils.

Selected recent publications

• Zhao J, Zeng J, Hoog GS de, Attili-Angelis D, Prenafeta-Boldú FX (2010). Isolation of black yeasts by enrichment on atmospheres of monoaromatic hydrocarbons. Biodegradation (submitted).
• Jiufeng Sun, Junmin Zhang, M. J. Najafzadeh, Hamid Badali, Liyan Xi & G. S. de Hoog. Melanin increases tolerance to stress factors but has no effect on antifungal susceptibility in a meristematic mutant of Fonsecaea monophora. Med. Mycol. (submitted).
• D.M. Saunte, B. Tarazooie, M.C. Arendrup, G.S. de Hoog.  Melanized fungi in skin and nail: it probably matters. Int. J. Dermatol (submitted).
• Badali H, Prenafeta-Boldu F.X, Guarro J, et al. Cladophialophora psammophila, a novel species of Chaetothyriales with a potential use in the bioremediation of volatile aromatic hydrocarbons. FEMS Microbiol Ecol (submitted).
• G.S. de Hoog & M. Gube (eds): Black Fungal Extremes. Studies in Mycology 61: 1-194.