Members
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Group members
PI
Seino Jongkees
I did my bachelors degrees in chemistry, biochemistry and philosophy at the University of Otago, in my homeland of New Zealand. From there I threw myself across the pacific to carry out my PhD with prof. Stephen Withers at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Next I crossed the pacific again to pursue a JSPS post-doctoral position at the University of Tokyo, Japan, under the guidance of prof. Hiroaki Suga. Heading back to my roots, I then took up an assistant professorship position at Utrecht University before moving the group to our current home at VU Amsterdam. My research interests are guided by a desire to understand how living systems work on a chemical level. I am fascinated by the idea of a collection of intricate and complex reactions coming together to create something like a cell, or even a whole organism.
PhD student
Ryoji Yoshisada
My broad interest is to understand molecular interactions from a chemical point of view and apply the knowledge for biological purposes. I graduated from Kyoto University with a Bachelor in Pharmaceutical Sciences at Kyoto University. During the 4th year of the bachelor's, I visited Utrecht University for a year-long research internship under the guidance of Dr. Seino A.K. Jongkees. This experience led me to stay in the Netherlands for my further career and I got into a chemistry master's programme at Leiden University. As a major internship, I worked on computational simulations of chemical reactions under the supervision of Prof. Jeroen D.C. Codée. Also, I investigated the computational aromatic property in the group of Prof. Célia F. Guerra at Vrije Universiteit. Now, I am back to the Jongkees group as a Ph.D. candidate, for a research project about functional glycopeptides to understand the immune system.
PhD student
Twan Hopstaken
I perfomed my Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology. During this Bachelor's I specialized in chemical biology and tissue engineering. Furthermore, I worked in the group of Prof. Luc Brunsveld on branched, light-cleavable peptides for the modulation of supramolecular interactions. During my Master's Biomedical Engineering, which I also perfomed in Eindhoven, I further specialized in chemical biology. I again worked in the lab of Prof. Brunsveld, this time focusing on protein engineering and assay development in order to engineer an allosteric pocket in the nuclear receptor RORalfa. I finished my degree with an intership at the Netherlands Translational Research Center. Here I worked on the characterization of the interaction between drug candidates and two proteins involved in cancer, using X-ray crystallography and various biochemical and biophysical assays. At the moment I am persuing my PhD in the group of Seino Jongkees at VU Amsterdam. I am working on genetically reprogramming proteins in lysate-based cell-free expression systems using flexizymes. Additionally, I am working on the characterization and discovery of cyclic peptide inhibitors of several viral and membrane proteins. My ambition is to further develop some of these cyclic peptides into compounds that can be used for the targeted degradation of membrane proteins.
Technician
Wren de Kock
I received my bachelors degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences at Utrecht University, during which I did an mRNA display selection at the Jongkees lab on sialvltransferase ST6Gal1, an enzyme overexpressed in many types of cancer. I then pursued a masters degree, further deepening my knowledge of Pharmaceutical Sciences, again at Utrecht University. During my masters I investigated non-canonical amino acids for the bio-orthogonal modification of peptides at the Jongkees lab and I investigated a modular nanoparticle system at the Radboud University in Nijmegen under the supervision of Dr. Kim Bonger. I received my masters degree in mid-2022 and not long after took up the position of Lab Technician at the Jongkees lab. I want to further develop my understanding of a wide range of Biochemical research topics and techniques. I'm fascinated by the chemistry of life, how so many brainless things can form such intricate and complex systems. And how one can manipulate this chemistry of life to a host of potential uses, from developing therapeutics to understanding the fundamentals behind disease.
Master's student
Aya Hinawi
I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the VU Amsterdam, where I did my bachelors internship at the Medicinal Chemistry group of Iwan de Esch and Maikel Wijtmans. There I worked on the synthesis of novel Histamine H1R/H4R dual activity antagonists from 2D and 3D scaffolds. As I am interested in combining organic chemistry and pharmacology, I am now pursuing a masters degree in Drug Discovery Sciences at the VU Amsterdam where I am specialising in medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology. In my current internship at the Jongkees lab, I am optimising the incorporation of small molecule modifications in mRNA display to diversify small peptide libraries.
Master's student
Maro Ockhuijsen
I obtained my bachelor's degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the VU Amsterdam. As a part of my degree, I did an internship at the Jongkees group, where I used TRAP mRNA display to find inhibitors for E. coli release factors. I am currently enrolled in the MSc Drug Discovery Sciences at the VU Amsterdam, where I combine my main interests: molecular pharmacology and bioinformatics. This is reflected in my current research project, which is a joint project between this group and the Bioinformatics group at the VU. For data collection, I am selecting peptides against an oncogenic target. Through machine learning approaches, we aim to select the most promising peptides from the selection data.
Master's student
Quinty Kilian
Hi! Having graduated from the bachelor pharmaceutical sciences here at the VU, I am now pursuing a master’s degree in Drug Discovery Sciences, following the synthesis track. I gained experience in the synthesis of small molecules during my bachelor’s internship in the group of Prof. Dr. de Esch and Dr. Wijtmans where I worked on the synthesis of novel histamine H1/H4 dual antagonists. My interests in peptides and chemical biology led me to the Jongkees group, where I am currently doing my major internship. Here, I work on optimizing the mRNA display technique to implement aldehyde modifications and I enjoy combining the different fields of drug discovery in this research.
Past members:
Frederieke Loth - Bachelor's student - 2024
Tianzeng Wan - Master's student - 2024
Carlijn Helder - Bachelor's student - 2024
Roos Visser - Bachelor's student - 2024
Leo Romao Soares - Master's student - 2024
Saskia Weller - Master's student - 2024
Helena Ehren - joint PhD student - 2023
Minglong Liu - Postdoctoral researcher - 2023
Raya Hana - Master's student - 2023
Enno Große-Wichtrup - Master's student - 2023
Isabel Houtkamp - joint Master's student - 2023
Sophie Appelman - Bachelor's student - 2023
Maro Ockhuijsen - Bachelor's student - 2023
Juliette Engelberts - visiting Master's student - 2023
Cameron Forkes - Master's student - 2023
Tom Vis - Bachelor's student - 2022
Paddy Melsen - Master's student - 2022
Rasmus Klintrot - Technician (shared) - 2022
Vito Thijssen - PhD student - 2021
Minglong Liu - PhD student - 2021
Lisa Brandenburg - Project technician - 2021
David van Dongen - Master's student - 2021
Stein Vermier - Master's student - 2021
Lin Rietveld - Master's student - 2021
Wren de Kock - Master's student - 2020
Cerissa van Walstijn - Bachelor's student - 2020
Lisa Brandenburg - Bachelor's student - 2020
Stein Vermeir - Bachelor's student - 2020
Lin Rietveld - Bachelor's student - 2020
Wren de Kock - Bachelor's student - 2019
Miha Sovrovic - Master's student - 2019
David van Dongen - Bachelor's student - 2019
Julia Egido-Egido - Master's student - 2019
Hao Shen - Bachelor's student - 2019
Lloyd Geway - Bachelor's student - 2018
Marinda Westerveld - Bachelor's student - 2018
Najoua el Boujnouni - Master's student - 2018
Dolapo Onabule - Master's student - 2018
Ryoji Yoshisada - Bachelor's student - 2018
Danique Ammerlaan - Bachelor's student - 2017
Avand Amedi - Bachelor's student - 2017
Vito Thijssen - Master's student - 2017
Lieke van Gijzel - Bachelor's student - 2017