Research staff
Research staff
The following lists the researchers of UIPS. They could supervise your research projects. More information about the five groups can be found here.
Pharmacology
The research in the Pharmacology group focuses on basic mechanisms underlying non-communicable disorders (NCD) and their pharmacological manipulations via drugs, biologicals and/or medical food components. The objective is to gain deeper insight into the pathways in which cells and mediators of the immune and/or central nervous systems interact, aimed at developing new concepts for prevention and/or treatment with a strong focus on inflammation management and organ function restoration.
In our group there is a unique combination of expertise in the field of immuno-pharmacology, neuro-immuno-pharmacology, psychopharmacology, and regenerative pharmacology covering research in major target organs such as kidney, gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts, and nervous systems in both animals and man. The program follows an integrative multidisciplinary translational approach from molecular, advanced in vitro and in vivo models for disease towards proof-of-concept clinical studies in healthy volunteers and patients.
Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery
The group focuses on design, chemo- or biosynthesis of compounds with biological or (potential) medicinal applications and interaction with their receptors. Insights thus obtained could lead to new bio-active compounds, new approaches for the treatment of still incurable diseases and new approaches to unsatisfactory treatments. We are interested in answering questions related to understanding as well as influencing peptide-protein, carbohydrate-protein and protein-protein interactions that underlie e.g. infection, immunological and neurological disorders. Especially modified peptides and peptidomimetics as well as carbohydrates are synthesized and studied. The research program is part of the Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, as well as the Bijvoet Center for Biomolecular Research.
Pharmaceutics
The core activity of the department is the design and pre-clinical testing of tailor-made drug delivery systems for site-specific, time- and/or rate-controlled delivery of small molecular weight drugs, therapeutic proteins, nucleic acids (including DNA and siRNA), and antigens for therapy and prevention of life-threatening diseases such as cancer, inflammation and infectious diseases.
The research in the Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics groups focuses on the use of mass spectrometry to understand the inner workings of cells. Mass spectrometry enables the characterization of molecules that are present in cells and allows thereby the identification and characterization of proteins and other biomolecules that work together and are involved in cellular processes and in disease. The group houses an excellent array of state-of-the-art mass spectrometers, combined with extensive protein and peptide separation methods. The group has a world-renown expertise in the analysis of protein-ligand, protein-protein and protein-DNA analysis by mass spectrometry. Therefore, dedicated mass spectrometers and LC methods have been and are developed allowing the analysis of the structure and function of protein machineries.
Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacology
Mission of the Division:
Our multidisciplinary research contributes to a better understanding of the variability in medicines’ use
and patient outcomes, both from a clinical, policy and methodological perspective. Despite extensive testing
before marketing approval, variability in drug response (both efficacy and safety) is more the rule
than the exception when medicines are used in daily clinical practice, i.e. in real life. The program has a
systems therapeutics focus, integrating various disciplines, dimensions and phases of a product life
cycle in order to learn about (rather than confirm) drug effects and their determinants both before and
after initial marketing approval of the product. The primary conceptual anchors in the research strategy
of the program are Epidemiological Methods, Clinical Pharmacology, Clinical Pharmacy, Drug Regulatory
Science and Systems Therapeutics. Research is organized into three centers with a strong conceptual
research strategy: the Centre for Pharmacoepidemiology, Centre for Clinical Therapeutics, and the Centre for Pharmaceutical Policy and Regulation.