Ronaldus (Ron) Adrianus Maria Fouchier (born 13 October 1966) is a Dutch

virologist Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, the ...

who is Deputy head of the

Erasmus MC Erasmus University Medical Center (Erasmus MC or EMC) is a teaching hospital based in Rotterdam, Netherlands, affiliated with Erasmus University and home to its faculty of medicine. It is the largest and one of the most authoritative scientific uni ...

Department of Viroscience, headed by

Marion Koopmans Maria Petronella Gerarda Koopmans (born 21 September 1956) is a Dutch virologist who is Head of the Erasmus MC Department of Viroscience. Her research considers emerging infectious diseases, noroviruses and veterinary medicine. In 2018 she was aw ...

Notability

Fouchier is notable for his research on respiratory viruses of humans and animals,

antigenic drift Antigenic drift is a kind of genetic variation in viruses, arising from the accumulation of mutations in the virus genes that code for virus-surface proteins that host antibodies recognize. This results in a new strain of virus particles that is ...

, and

influenza virus ''Orthomyxoviridae'' () is a family of negative-sense RNA viruses. It includes nine genera: '' Alphainfluenzavirus'', '' Betainfluenzavirus'', '' Gammainfluenzavirus'', '' Deltainfluenzavirus'', '' Isavirus'', '' Mykissvirus'', '' Quaranjavir ...

zoonoses A zoonosis (; plural zoonoses) or zoonotic disease is an infectious disease of humans caused by a pathogen (an infectious agent, such as a virus, bacterium, parasite, fungi, or prion) that can jump from a non-human vertebrate to a human. When h ...

, transmission and

pandemics A pandemic ( ) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic dis ...

. His team contributed substantially to the identification and characterization of various “new” viruses, such as

human metapneumovirus Human metapneumovirus (HMPV or hMPV) is a negative-sense single-stranded RNA virus of the family ''Pneumoviridae'' and is closely related to the avian metapneumovirus (AMPV) subgroup C. It was isolated for the first time in 2001 in the Netherland ...

human coronavirus NL63 Human coronavirus NL63 (HCoV-NL63, ''Alphacoronavirus amsterdamense'') is a species of coronavirus, assigned to the subgenus ''Setracovirus'' and the genus ''Alphacoronavirus''. It was identified in late 2004 in patients in Netherlands, the Nethe ...

SARS coronavirus Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 1 (SARS-CoV-1), previously known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), is a strain of coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the respiratory illn ...

MERS coronavirus Middle East respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus (MERS-CoV, ''Betacoronavirus cameli'') or EMC/2012 ( HCoV-EMC/2012), is the virus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). It is a species of coronavirus which infects humans, ba ...

, and influenza A virus subtype H16.. In 2012 he published a paper on his controversial “gain of function” research into the H5N1 virus - “Avian Flu” - i
ferrets
which enabled easier transmission of the virus between mammals.

Honours and awards

In 2006 he received the Heine-Medin award of the European Society for Clinical Virology and in 2013 the Huibregtsen award for top innovative science with societal impact. Fouchier was elected member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (, KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam. In addition to various advisory a ...

(KNAW) in 2016. He is also member of the

Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities The ''Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen'' (Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities), located on the east side of the Spaarne in downtown Haarlem, Netherlands, was established in 1752 and is the oldest society for the ...

(KHMW). He was elected member of the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

in 2018. He is a member of the CEIRR Center coordinated at the

Icahn School of Medicine The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS or Mount Sinai), formerly the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is a private medical school in New York City, New York, United States. The school is the academic teaching arm of the Mount Sinai H ...

at Mount Sinai in New York City and received the M.W. Beijerinck Virology Prize, awarded by the

(KNAW), in 2023. Fouchier is a web-of-science Highly Cited author.

Selected publications

Human metapneumovirus: A newly discovered human pneumovirus isolated from young children with respiratory tract disease
van den Hoogen BG, de Jong JC, Groen J, Kuiken T, de Groot R, Fouchier RA, Osterhaus AD. Nat Med. 2001 Jun;7(6):719-24. doi: 10.1038/89098. PMID 11385510
Human coronavirus NL63: A previously undescribed coronavirus associated with respiratory disease in humans
Fouchier RA, Hartwig NG, Bestebroer TM, Niemeyer B, de Jong JC, Simon JH, Osterhaus AD. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 Apr 20;101(16):6212-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0400762101. Epub 2004 Apr 8. PMID 15073334
SARS coronavirus: Aetiology: Koch's postulates fulfilled for SARS virus
Fouchier RA, Kuiken T, Schutten M, van Amerongen G, van Doornum GJ, van den Hoogen BG, Peiris M, Lim W, Stöhr K, Osterhaus AD. Nature. 2003 May 15;423(6937):240. doi: 10.1038/423240a. PMID 12748632
MERS coronavirus: Isolation of a novel coronavirus from a man with pneumonia in Saudi Arabia
Zaki AM, van Boheemen S, Bestebroer TM, Osterhaus AD, Fouchier RA. N Engl J Med. 2012 Nov 8;367(19):1814-20. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1211721. Epub 2012 Oct 17. PMID 23075143
Influenza virus H16: Characterization of a novel influenza A virus hemagglutinin subtype (H16) obtained from black-headed gulls
Fouchier RA, Munster V, Wallensten A, Bestebroer TM, Herfst S, Smith D, Rimmelzwaan GF, Olsen B, Osterhaus AD. J Virol. 2005 Mar;79(5):2814-22. doi: 10.1128/JVI.79.5.2814-2822.2005. PMID 15709000
Airborne Transmission of Influenza A/H5N1 Virus Between Ferrets
Herfst S, Schrauwen EJ, Linster M, Chutinimitkul S, de Wit E, Munster V, Sorrell EM, Bestebroer TM, Burke DF, Smith D, Rimmelzwaan GF, Osterhaus AD, Fouchier RA +3 authors Authors Info & Affiliations SCIENCE 22 Jun 2012 Vol 336, Issue 6088 pp. 1534-1541 DOI: 10.1126/science.1213362

References

External links

* Fouchier is member of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences (KHMW

Google Scholar Profile

Scopus Profile

(in Dutch)
Interview with virologist Ron Fouchier
(in Dutch) * Collaborating investigator of the CRIPT centre in CEIR

* Podcast of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW) about Planetary Health (in Dutch

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fouchier, Ron 1966 births Living people Academic staff of Erasmus University Rotterdam Dutch virologists Members of Academia Europaea Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences