Gilles van Wezel is a professor of Microbial Biotechnology and Director of the Institute of Biology Leiden, the Netherlands. He is also a distinguished professor at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology NIOO-KNAW in Wageningen. He is a member of the boards of the Netherlands Centre of One Health and the Netherlands Antibiotic Discovery Platform.

Gilles has over 30 years of experience in the biology and genetics of Actinobacteria, which are Nature’s medicine makers. He received a European Research Council ERC Advanced grant in 2022 and coordinates several large research consortia, including the EU H2020 network MARBLES on marine microbes and natural products and NACTAR on the discovery of novel antibiotics.

Gilles’ research aims to unravel the global regulatory networks that control major cellular processes in Actinobacteria, with focus on primary and secondary metabolism. His lab combines genetics and microbiology with state-of-the-art systems biology and metabolomics approaches. A major topic is the control of antibiotic production and elucidating the (environmental) triggers and cues that control the expression of cryptic biosynthetic gene clusters. This has led to the discovery of many novel bioactive molecules, as well as bacteria that can be harnessed as bioprotectants for the sustainable protection of crops and marine biodiversity.

Gilles has published some 200 research papers in peer reviewed journals and contributed to 14 patents. He did his BSc and MSc studies at the Free University in Amsterdam, obtained his PhD in Leiden in 1994 and did his postdoctoral research at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK. He became a research fellow of the Netherlands Royal Academy in 2001 and full professor in Leiden in 2010. He also co-founded the biotech company Mycobics in 2002.