I studied organic chemistry at the Hogeschool Rotterdam and as part of this I did a 6 months internship at AltanaPharma, Konstanz, Germany. The following 3 years, I synthesized screening compounds and building blocks at Specs and BioSpecs, two services companies based in Delft, The Netherlands. Because of my interest in Medicinal Chemistry I joined Prof. IJzerman's group as a research technician in March 2005.

My part of the research on adenosine receptors is the synthesis of new ligands. I am particular interested in labeling already known ligands with a photo affinity probe. This photo affinity probe attached to the ligands can be activated by UV light and will form a covalent bond with the binding pocket of the receptor. Hopefully this research can teach us more about the location of the binding pocket on the receptor and in particular which amino acids are involved in this process.

Publications