Profile of the advisor
Prof. dr. ir. Jan van Hest holds the chair of Bio-organic Chemistry at Eindhoven University of Technology. He is an ERC Advanced grant awardee, and currently also coordinates the Horizon 2020 ITN Network Nanomed, dedicated to developing smart delivery carriers in medicine. Van Hest is associate editor of Bioconjugate Chemistry. 39 PhD students have obtained their doctorate degree under his supervision, and he currently supervises 21 PhD students. He has published around 350 papers (H factor 61). He is also cofounder of four start-up companies (Encapson, FutureChemistry, Noviosense and Noviotech).
Expertise
Artificial cells and organelles, nanoreactors, nanomedicine, polymer self-assembly.
Profile of the research group
The Eindhoven bio-organic chemistry group has obtained international recognition for its ground breaking work on biohybrid polymer systems and polymersome architectures. Using a combination of techniques from polymer science to protein engineering, we aim to develop well-defined compartments for nanomedicine and artificial cell research. Regarding the latter, we create structural mimics of eukaryotic cells, with an emphasis on multicompartmentalisation, positional assembly of enzyme cascades and mimicry of the cytosol. From a perspective of functionality, we design compartments with life-like features, such as out-of-equilibrium behaviour, communicative properties and motility.
