Maarten Altelaar appointed professor of Pharmaceutical Proteomics

As of 15 September 2019, researcher Maarten Altelaar has been appointed Professor in Pharmaceutical Proteomics at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Utrecht University. Altelaar researches how proteins function and how they communicate with each other in cells and tissues.

Maarten Altelaar's research focuses on the development and implementation of innovative mass spectrometry methods for more efficient and detailed measurements of proteins. The emphasis of his work is on improving the sensitivity and specificity of proteomics technology in order to map cellular processes even better. Understanding these cellular processes is of great importance, because this type of cellular processes are disrupted in various diseases.

Kinases

His research is fundamental, but with very practical applications: "My group has been working on kinases: a group of enzymes that regulate the activity of proteins that are involved in cell division and cell death, among other things, and can therefore play a role in cancer. We are the first to have developed a method to measure the activity of kinase directly. We have patented the technique and the industry is already interested in the method."

Background

Maarten Altelaar studied analytical chemistry at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and then carried out his PhD research in the field of imaging mass spectrometry at the Institute for Atom a Molecule Physics (AMOLF). He is also a member of the board of the International Mass Spectrometry Foundation. In 2012 he received a VIDI grant from NWO.