Organic and Biomimetic Chemistry Research Group (OBCR)

CV Prof. Dr. Annemieke Madder

Biography

Annemieke Madder obtained her Ph.D in organic chemistry from Ghent University in 1997, under the direction of Prof. Dr. P. De Clercq working on the stepwise development of non-enzymatic hydrolases. As a national science foundation fellow, she went for postdoctoral stays with Prof. Dr. C. Gennari at the University of Milan and with Prof. Dr. R. Strömberg at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden to become acquainted with peptide and oligonucleotide chemistry respectively. She returned to Ghent to take up a position as Lecturer in 2002 and start her independent career. After climbing the ranks, she was promoted Full Professor at the Department of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry in 2014. Currently she is heading the Organic and Biomimetic Chemistry Research Group specialized in the design and synthesis of modified peptides and nucleic acids and methods for their conjugation and labeling.

More specifically, major research interests include:

– The construction of conformationally defined peptide architectures. Scaffold decoration, cyclisation and peptide stapling are used to impose a particular conformation and stability on the parent peptides. The synthesized compounds can find applications as peptide vaccins, protein mimetics, DNA-binding ligands and artificial receptors or synthetic antibodies.

– The development of new methods for crosslinking and labeling of biomacromolecules such as peptides, proteins and oligonucleotides. E.g. a very efficient furan-oxidation based method has been developed for the site-selective labeling or introduction of covalent bonds between two binding partners.

– The design of novel reactive peptide and oligonucleotide based probes, including peptide nucleic acids, for applications in antisense and antigene strategies, protein and miRNA/lncRNA target identification and receptor pulldown.

University Career

  • 07/1992: Graduated in chemistry                                    greatest distinction
  • 02/1997: PhD in sciences, chemistry                              greatest distinction

    Funded by The National Fund of Scientific Research

    PhD supervisor: Prof. Dr. P.J. De Clercq; University of Ghent; Belgium

  • 1997-1998: Postdoctoral grant (University of Ghent)

postdoctoral stay in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. C. Gennari,

Dipartimento di Chimica Organica e Industriale Milano, Universita' di Milano, Italy

“Synthesis of ligands for a library of b-turn mimetics”

  • 1998-2001: FWO Postdoctoral grant (National Fund of Scientific Research)

®including 2000-2001: postdoctoral stay in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. R. Strömberg

Division of Organic and Bioorganic Chemistry, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Zweden

  • 2001-2002: FWO Postdoctoral grant (National Fund of Scientific Research)

® postdoctoral research on “Development of serine-protease inspired artificial DNAzymes”

  • Starting 1/10/2002: Lecturer at Ghent University, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Organic Chemistry
  • From 1/10/2010: Senior Lecturer at Ghent University, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Organic Chemistry
  • Since 1/10/2014: Professor at Ghent University, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Organic Chemistry
  • Since 1/10/2022: Full Professor at Ghent University, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Organic Chemistry

 Scientific Responsibilities

  • Belgian representative within EuChems Division of Life Sciences
  • Panel Chair of the Chemistry Panel PE5 of the ERC starting Grants 2013 and 2015
  • Panel Member of the Chemistry Panel PE5 of the ERC starting Grants 2012, 2011, 2010
  • Member of the Editorial Board of EurJOC, Molecules
  • Member / chair of > 90 PhD examination jury’s
  • Regular referee for JACS, OBC, ChemComm, NAR, EurJOC, Chem Eur J, Org Lett, Tetrahedron Letters, Chemical Research in Toxicology, J Comb Chem.
  • Member of the Organizing Committee of the Yearly Sigma Aldrich/Merck Organic Synthesis Meeting
  • Member of the Organizing Committee of BOSS XI
  • Member of the Organizing and Scientific Committee of the Belgian Peptide Group meeting, main organizer of the 2018 edition, co-chair of the 2022 edition

Collaborative Research

  • Beneficiary to the MSCA ITN project “OligoMed” (H2020-MSCA-ITN-2020- 956070)
  • Beneficiary to the MSCA ITN project “MMBio” (H2020-MSCA-ITN-2014-721613)
  • Coordination of the MSCA ITN project “SO2S” (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-ITN-316975)
  • Beneficiary to the ITN “PhosChemRec” (FP7-PEOPLE-ITN-2008-238679).
  • Coordination of the Marie Curie EST Research project “sEnDiChem” (MEST-CT-2005-20643)

Courses