Members

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We are always interested in talented and enthusiastic new students. Please do not hesitate to get in touch!

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