Ronnie de Jonge

Dr. Ronnie de Jonge is an Associate Professor at Utrecht University's Faculty of Science, affiliated with the Department of Biology and the Department of Information and Computing Sciences. His work bridges microbial ecology, genomics, and bioinformatics to study plant-microbe interactions, particularly focusing on rhizosphere microbiome dynamics and pathogen virulence. He leads the AI Technology for Life group, integrating AI modeling with biological data to predict microbial community assembly.

Education: PhD (2012, Wageningen University), postdoctoral research at VIB Plant Systems Biology (2013–2015) and FWO fellowship (2015–2018). Current research spans synthetic microbial communities, root exudate-driven selection, and spinach downy mildew effector analysis. Collaborations include international projects like the Wheat Alliance and InRoot, funded by NWO, Novo Nordisk, and others.

Research highlights include discovering inositol's role in microbial metabolism (Current Biology, 2023) and identifying plant genes regulating root microbiome assembly (Molecular Plant, 2023). Recent work explores root hairs' role in microbiome establishment and functional analysis of pathogen effectors.

• Grants: Over €10M secured through RHICO, InRoot, ATTACC, and the Wheat Alliance.
• Advising: Supervised 15+ PhD candidates and postdocs, including Anneriet ter Burg, Petra Matysková, and Gijs Selten.
• Awards: Hugo de Vries Award (2012), EMBO Fellowship (2013–2015).

His team's work is disseminated through over 45 peer-reviewed publications, with a focus on Current Biology, Molecular Plant, and bioRxiv preprints. Active in teaching, he coordinates courses on genome biology and microbial genomics at both BSc and MSc levels.