Group Picture September 2025

New academic year, new group photo! Our team gathered in front of the Huygens building to kick off the year together.

New Publication in ACS Polymers Au

Congratulations to Dulce and Jesper on the publication of their recent paper in ACS Polymers Au! In this work, we present a multi-postpolymerization functionalization strategy that enables two consecutive click reactions at the polymer terminus using a single click handle. Remarkably, the process is truly traceless, making it a powerful tool for constructing complex molecular architectures with potential applications in medicine.

Read the full article here.

Kevin attends KNCV workshop ‘Next Generation Leaders in Dutch Chemistry‘

How can the future of the Dutch chemistry landscape be shaped? What strategies can accelerate knowledge transfer while preserving a strong emphasis on fundamental, blue-sky research? And which foundations must be established today to ensure excellent chemistry education in the years to come?

These questions were central to the ‘Next Generation Leaders in Dutch Chemistry’ workshop, hosted by the Lorentz Centre. Kevin was invited to join this exciting event, bringing together an energetic and forward-thinking cohort of early-career leaders in Dutch chemistry. The workshop provided a platform for exchanging ideas, building collaborations, and envisioning the future of the field at the national and European level.

Kevin joins Early Career Advisory Board of ‘Chemistry – A European Journal‘

Starting in 2025, Kevin will join the Early Career Advisory Board (ECAB) of Chemistry – A European Journal, the cornerstone journal of Chemistry Europe. This multidisciplinary journal covers all aspects of modern chemistry, and the ECAB provides a platform for younger chemists to contribute to the journal’s strategic development. For more details on the journal’s mission and vision, see the Guest Editorial by Editor-in-Chief Dr. Haymo Ross.

Open position for MSc internship ‘Synthetic Peptide Chemistry’

We are offering an MSc internship position in the field of synthetic peptide chemistry, with a focus on developing new methodologies for Fmoc-based Solid-Phase Peptide Synthesis. The start date is flexible, but ideally in spring 2025. Interested candidates should submit their applications directly to Kevin by email no later than 17th January 2025.

Kevin received Bachem Award for Peptide Science 2024

During the 13th Austrian Peptide Symposium in Vienna, Kevin was awarded the 2024 Bachem Award for Peptide Science! This award for early-career scientists acknowledges and recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of peptide chemistry, highlighting the impact of our work in advancing new chemistries for peptide science.

December 2024, Vienna

EuChemS Young Investigator Workshop

Kevin had the honor of participating in the Young Investigator Workshop in Galway, Ireland, this July. This fantastic event was organized by EuChemS and highlighted the power of cross-border collaborations in Europe. The event concluded with a lecture by Nobel Prize laureate Prof. Frances Arnold!

Presentations at Macromolecular Colloquium (DE) and UZH (CH)

In February, Kevin presented the groups work at the Macromolecular Colloquium in Freiburg, Germany, which is among the oldest polymer meetings in the world. Kevin presented our research related to polymeric ylides. A few days later, Kevin presented at the University of Zurich. A big thank you to Prof. Juríček and Prof. Hartrampf for organising this visit!

February 2024

Successful ending of 2023

It has been a busy year for us and we finished it off by two publications in December 2023. In one article, we review the synthetic approach for accessing tetrazines scaffolds. Tetrazines have emerged as a powerful tool for bioorthogonal chemistry and we hope that we provide guidance for chemists and chemical biologists with this review. In our Chem. Eur. J article, we reveal the impact of water on the formation of benzothiazoles. Our group has a large interest to perform reactions under biological conditions and this work helps us to understand the impact of water on simple organic transformations.

Publication in ACS Macro Letter

Congrats to Dimitrios and the entire team for their work on poly(phosphorus ylides)! Earlier this year, we showed that polymeric ylides can be considered as a new class of zwitterionic polymers with great antifouling properties. However, current structures were limited to sulfur ylides and N-oxides. In this article, we significantly expand the chemical space of polymeric ylides by reporting poly(phosphorus ylides) and demonstrate that this type of zwitterionic polymer offers many exciting applications as antifouling building block. Check out our article on polymeric phosphorus ylides.

Click’n lock allows traceless peptide cyclisation – JPS article

Congrats to Katerina and Daniëlle who have shown that our click’n lock approach allows not only the modification of complex biomolecules but also traceless peptide cyclisation! In our new JPS article, we show that the cyclisation occurs without the need of additional activation reagent by simply incubating in aqueous buffer. Well done!

Publication in Angewandte Chemie

It is a busy summer for us: Congratulations to Bela, Georgia and Dimitrios on their accepted research article entitled “Zwitterionic Polymeric Sulfur Ylides with Minimal Charge Separation Open a New Generation of Antifouling and Bactericidal Materials“. while zwitterionic polymers are widely used building blocks for all sorts of (medical) materials, the vast majority is based on betaine structures. We show that polymeric ylides – a so far almost completely overlooked class of polymers – display not only great antifouling but also bactericidal properties. Check out our article!

Publication in RSC Chemical Biology

Congratulations to Katerina, Dustin and Daniëlle on their accepted manuscript entitled “Click’n lock: rapid exchange between unsymmetric tetrazines and thiols for reversible, chemoselective functionalisation of biomolecules with on-demand bioorthogonal locking“! In this manuscript, we show how reversible and irreversible click chemistry can be combined by using unsymmetrical sulfide tetrazines. We use this technique for selective modifications of peptide and look forward to see many more applications in the future!

Treasure hunt – Group activity summer 2023!

Last week, we went on a thrilling treasure hunt, exploring the exciting surroundings of Nijmegen. We celebrated the ending of a fantastic academic year 2022/2023 with some drinks and pizza!

New preprints online!

Last month, we have posted two (!) new preprints to chemrxiv. One relates to dynamic click chemistry enabled by asymmetric sulfide bearing tetrazines with on-demand bioorthogonal locking (second order rate constants up to 25 M^-1 s^-1!). The second preprint describes polymeric sulfur ylides and their antifouling properties which we tested with pathogenic bacteria in collaboration with the Wilson group! Well done everyone! Please check out these preprints (@publication) and stay tuned for other exciting work!

A welcome to the BSc students

We are happy to welcome Angie Tyumina and Anouk Fransen in our group. During their BSc internship, Angie and Anouk will work novel polymers for drug delivery.

Group activity

During the last year, Katerina, Dulce and Qi started their PhD studies and several MSc students joined our team for their final internship. We wanted to celebrate the one-year anniversary of our group with past, present and future group members!

October 2022

Welcome to the team, Qi!

Also in October, Qi joined our group as a PhD candidate. With a background in organic chemistry, Qi will develop new nanoreactors. Welcome to the group, Qi!

October 2022

Welcome to the team, Dulce!

This month Dulce joined our group as a PhD candidate. Dulce will work in the field of polymer chemistry and drug delivery. Welcome to the group, Dulce!

October 2022

Publication in Polymer Chemistry

Congratulations to Georgia on her publication in RSC Polymer Chemistry! Georgia describes poly(ylides) as a new class of zwitterionic polymers. These zwitterionic poly(ylides) are easily accessible by radical polymerisation and display distinct thermal and solution behaviour!

July 2022

Funded PhD Position available

We are hiring! Our group is looking for PhD candidates starting this summer! We are looking for students with a synthetic chemistry background who want to work at the interface of chemistry and medicine. The PhD candidate will work in the field of drug delivery and drug activation including polymer chemistry and the development of new approaches for accessing functionalized polymeric nanostructures. Please send your application directly to Kevin (with a CV, letter of interest and transcript of records).

March 2022

First Group Picture

Since the university is opening slowly the doors again, we decided that it is time for our first group picture! Please note the fantastic periodic table in the background.

February 2022

Start of Master Internships

We are very excited to welcome Georgia, Peter and Elija for their master internships in our lab!

November 2021

Welcome to the team, Katerina!

This month Katerina Gavriel joined our group as a PhD candidate. Katerina will work in the field of drug activation and delivery. Welcome to the group, Katerina!

October 2021

Bachelor and Master internships

We have positions for Bachelor and Master internships for the next academic year available in our group. If you are interested, you can send a message directly to Kevin.

August 2021

Funded PhD position available

Our group is looking for PhD students starting this autumn! We are looking for students with a synthetic background in organic- and polymer-chemistry who want to work at the interface of chemistry and medicine. Currently we are interested in in-vivo drug synthesis and biocompatible polymerizations. For more details, please contact Kevin directly (with a CV and letter of interest).

July 2021

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