Biosketch Eelco Ruijter
Eelco (1977) studied Chemistry at the VU University Amsterdam with Prof. Ludger Wessjohann, whom he then joined to the Institute or Plant Biochemistry (Halle/Saale, Germany) to perform his PhD studies on the synthesis of natural product analogs. In 2004, he joined the groups of Profs. Rob Liskamp and Albert Heck at Utrecht University as a postdoctoral fellow working on molecular probes for proteomics. In 2006 he returned to the VU University to become an Assistant Professor in the Synthetic & Bio-Organic Chemistry group, where he earned tenure in 2012. His research interests include novel (biomimetic) cascade reactions, transition metal, organo- and biocatalysis, and applications in the synthesis of pharmaceutically relevant heterocycles and natural product analogs as well as chemical biology.