About me
I am Professor in the Biomedical and Life Sciences at UCR and coordinator of the premedical program. I am a biologist who studied in Wageningen, did my thesis work on the immune system of fish and afterwards started working as a medical immunologist in the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital in Utrecht and a number of other places. I came to UCR to teach gifted international students and prepare them for future careers in bio-medicine or anywhere else. In my research I focus on the interaction between bacteria and the human immune system, but at the same try to incorporate the Liberal Arts and Sciences by also publishing on Bob Dylan and Jheronimus Bosch. My teaching activities are within the Biomedical and Life Sciences, but also include postgraduate courses and Kids Colleges for primary school children. I have written a textbook on Immunology (in Dutch) which, with a lot of help from UCR students, is being transferred into an international edition.
Selected publications
2021
- Rijkers GT, Rietkerken S*. Mass of Saint Gregory: Lymphocyte Transformation Tests as a Diagnostic Tool in Clinical Immunology. J Vaccines Immunol 2021, 6: 160. DOI: 10.29011/2575-789X.000160
2020
- Holzer L*, Hoffman T, Van Kessel DA, Rijkers GT. Pneumococcal vaccination in lung transplant patients. Expert Rev Vaccines. 2020 Mar;19(3):227-234. doi: 10.1080/14760584.2020.1738224.
- Boudville DA*, Joshi R*, Rijkers GT. Migration and tuberculosis in Europe. J Clin Tuberc Other Mycobact Dis. 2020 Jan 7;18:100143. doi: 10.1016/j.jctube.2020.100143.
- Rijkers GT. The Arrest of Christ: Autotransplantation from Miracle to Medical Procedure. J Vaccines Immunol 2020, 5: 148. DOI: 10.29011/2575-789X.000148
- Rijkers G. Persistence of Memory in Times of COVID-19. Trends in Immunology, June 2020, Vol. 41, No. 6. Pp 453
- Rijkers GT. The Temptation of St. Anthony: Fighting against an Invisible Enemy in Times of Corona. J Vaccines Immunol 2020, 5: 153. DOI: 10.29011/2575-789X.000153
- Rijkers G, Vervenne T, van der Pol P. More bricks in the wall against SARS-CoV-2 infection: involvement of γ9δ2 T cells. Cell Mol Immunol. 2020 Jul;17(7):771-772. doi: 10.1038/s41423-020-0473-0.
- Dronkers TMG, Ouwehand AC, Rijkers GT. Global analysis of clinical trials with probiotics. 2020 Jul 17;6(7):e04467. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04467.
- Rijkers G, Murk JL, Wintermans B, van Looy B, van den Berge M, Veenemans J, Stohr J, Reusken C, van der Pol P, Reimerink J. Differences in Antibody Kinetics and Functionality Between Severe and Mild Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infections. J Infect Dis. 2020 Sep 14;222(8):1265-1269. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiaa463.
- Rijkers GT. Helter Skelter or All Together Now: Beatles Songs Associated with the last 2 U.S. Presidents. 2020 October 4. doi:10.31234/osf.io/zymdb.
- De Vries E, Rijkers GT. Specific Antibody Deficiency. In: Stiehm’s Immune Deficiencies, 2nd edition. Inborn Errors of Immunity. K. Sullivan and ER Stiehm (Editors). Academic Press. 2020 pp 537-542. https://www.elsevier.com/books/stiehms-immune-deficiencies/sullivan/978-0-12-816768-7
2019
- Polderdijk MCE*, Heron M, Kuipers S, Rijkers GT. Deciphering the genotype and phenotype of hairy cell leukemia: clues for diagnosis and treatment. Expert Rev Clin Immunol. 2019 Jul 12:1-11. https://tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1744666X.2019.1641405
- Nguyen TA*, Croon S*, Rijkers G. Mycobacterium tuberculosis: escape room world champion. Pneumonia (Nathan). 2019 Mar 24;11:1. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41479-019-0060-2
- Rijkers GT, Croon S*, Nguyen TA*. Rocking pneumonia and the boogie woogie flu. European Medical Journal 2019, 4.1: 48-54.
- Rijkers G.T., Holzer, L,*, Dusselier, T*. Genetics in community-acquired pneumonia. Current Opinion in Pulmonary Medicine. 2019 May;25(3):323-329.
- Janssen LMA, Heron M, Murk J-L, Leenders ACAP, Rijkers GT, De Vries E. Focusing on good responders to pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccination in general hospital patients suspected for immunodeficiency. A decision tree based on the 23-valent Pneumococcal IgG assay. Front. Immunol. 2019, 10:2496. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2019.02496
- Meek B, Ekstrom N, . . . . , Rijkers G, Berbers G. Multilaboratory comparison of pneumococcal multiplex immunoassays used in immunosurveillance of Streptococcus pneumoniae across Europe. mSphere Nov 2019, 4 (6) e00455-19; doi: 10.1128/mSphere.00455-19
(* UCR Student (co-)authors)