Associate Professor
Maastricht University
Maastricht, Netherlands
Ingrid Dijkgraaf studied Molecular Sciences with specialization in Organic Chemistry at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Subsequently, she was from 2002-2006 a junior investigator at both the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Utrecht University and the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the Radboud University Medical Centre. After obtaining her PhD degree, she was from 2006 to 2009 a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. After a subsequent postdoctoral position at the Radboud University Medical Centre, she started in 2011 at the Department of Biochemistry of Maastricht University where she is currently working as an associate professor. In 2014 she was a Fulbright Scholar at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, USA. Her research focusses on the design and synthesis of peptides and proteins that can be used for molecular imaging, drug development, and studying molecular mechanisms in the field of cardiovascular diseases and oncology. Therefore, structure-activity relationship studies of polypeptides are performed. For her research, she peeks at Nature, especially at hematophagous parasites, as they express a vast variety of anticoagulant, anti-inflammatory, immuno-modulatory, and vasodilating proteins that evade or counteract host defence mechanisms. These organisms represent major sources of lead compounds for development of pharmacological tools and potentially useful therapeutic agents.
SOA 12.1 - Molecular Basis of Anticoagulant Tick Salivary Proteins
Monday, June 26, 2023
08:00 – 08:25 ET