Ronald Plasterk

Ronald Hans Anton Plasterk (born on April 12, 1957 in The Hague) is a Dutch biologist, columnist, and politician. He is the Minister of Education, Culture and Science in the fourth Balkenende cabinet.

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Scientific career

As a biologist he has specialised in molecular biology. He has been a professor at the California Institute of Technology, at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, and at Utrecht University.^[1] From 1987 until 2000 he was the managing director of the Netherlands Cancer Institute.^[1] In February 2000 he started a research institute at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[1]

Political career

Plasterk is a member of the Labour Party (PvdA).^[1] Plasterk is an outspoken atheist. In his columns in de Volkskrant and Buitenhof, he opposed the proposal of Maria van der Hoeven, the preceding minister, to introduce the teaching of intelligent design in schools.^[2]

He lives in Bussum (one of the Netherland's richest towns), as did his Social-democratic party's former leader, Ad Melkert.

Bibliography

Selected scientific bibliography by Plasterk

• Ketting, R.F., Fischer, S.E.J., Bernstein, E., Sijen, T., Hannon, G.J., Plasterk R.H.A. (2001). Dicer functions in RNA interference and in synthesis of small RNA involved in developmental timing in C. elegans. Genes & Development 15: 2654-2659.
• Sijen, T., Fleenor, J., Simmer, F., Thijssen, K.L., Parrish, S., Timmons, L., Plasterk, R.H.A., Fire, A. (2001). On the role of RNA amplification in dsRNA-triggered gene silencing. Cell 107: 465-476.
• Tijsterman, M., Ketting, R.F., Okihara, K. L., Sijen, T., Plasterk, R. H. A. (2002) Short antisense RNAs can trigger gene silencing in C. elegans, depending on the RNA helicase MUT-14. Science 25;295 (5555): 694-697
• Wienholds, E., Schulte-Merker, S., Walderich, B., Plasterk, R.H.A. (2002) Target-selected inactivation of the zebrafish rag1 gene. Science 297 (July 5): 99-102.
• Wienholds, E., Koudijs, M.J., Van Eeden, F.J.M., Cuppen, E., Plasterk, R.H.A. (2003) The microRNA-producing enzyme Dicer 1 is essential for zebrafish development. Nature Genetics 35: 217-218.
• Sijen, T., Plasterk, R.H.A. (2003) Transposon silencing in the Caenorhabditis elegans germ line by natural RNAi. Nature 426: 310-314.
• Berezikov, E., Guryev, V., van de Belt, J., Wienholds, E., Plasterk, R.H.A., Cuppen, E. (2005) Phylogenetic shadowing and computational identification of human microRNA genes. Cell 120: 21-24.
• Robert, V.J.P., Sijen, T., van Wolfswinkel, J., Plasterk, R.H.A. (2005) Chromatin and RNAi factors protect the C. elegans germline against repetitive sequences. Genes Dev. 19: 782-787.
• Sijen T., Steiner F.A., Thijssen K.L., Plasterk R.H.A. (2007) Secondary siRNAs result from unprimed RNA synthesis and form a distinct class. Science. 2007 Jan 12;315(5809):244-7.

About Plasterk

• Rosan Hollak en Ron Rijghard, "Ware baldadigheid. Het culturele DNA van minister Ronald Plasterk", NRC Handelsblad, 16 februari 2007 (Dutch language)
• Karolin Schaps (September 30, 2006). Ronald Plasterk, DNA dissenter. cafebabel.com.

References