Discoverer of the Year 2014: Annelien Zweemer
Former PhD student Annelien Zweemer was granted the C.J. Kok Award 2014, also known as “Discoverer of the Year”. A festive ceremony took place at the Faculty’s New Year’s reception on January 6, 2015.
During her PhD Annelien Zweemer studied how small molecules affect the CCR2 receptor, a transmembrane protein that plays an important role in many immune-related diseases. She studied how small molecules can alter the functioning of the CCR2 receptor, thus paving the way for pharmaceutical interventions.
Annelien Zweemer (1985) studied Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences in Leiden. From 2010 to 2014 she did her PhD research at the Division of Medicinal Chemistry (Leiden University) under supervision of Professor Ad IJzerman and Dr. Laura Heitman. Since August 2014 she is appointed as a postdoctoral associate at the department of Biological Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA).