"Addressing biomedical challenges via bottom-up chemical approaches provides a unique training ground and offers fantastic opportunities for interdisciplinary science."

Luc Brunsveld is professor of Chemical Biology at the department of Biomedical Engineering. His research interests are focused on chemical biology approaches studying protein-protein interactions, particularly drug discovery and supramolecular signalling systems. Combining synthetic and supramolecular chemistry with chemical biology allows exact molecular modulation of biological systems. Since 2011 the Chemical Biology group has been embedded in the interdepartmental Institute of Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS) and the NWO Gravity Research Center for Functional Molecular Systems. The group has developed a strong expertise in organic synthesis, peptide and protein chemistry, chemical biology, and supramolecular chemistry, enabling the development of new molecules and materials to study, engineer, and modulate protein-protein interactions. The realization of a synthetic cell and novel drugs via the modulation of protein-protein interactions are high on the group's wish list.

Luc Brunsveld studied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e, The Netherlands) and Osaka University (Japan). After obtaining his Master's degree in 1997 he performed his PhD research at TU/e and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA) in the field of supramolecular chemistry, under supervision of Prof. E.W. (Bert) Meijer. In 2001, he obtained his doctorate cum laude. From 2001-2003, he was a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Herbert Waldmann at the Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology (MPI, Dortmund, Germany) working on protein semi-synthesis. From 2003-2004, he was group leader in medicinal chemistry at Organon (Oss, the Netherlands, now Merck). In 2005, he started a research group at MPI in Dortmund working on supramolecular chemical biology, and subsequently also became group leader at the Chemical Genomics Centre of the Max Planck Society, working on Nuclear Receptor protein interactions. In 2008, he moved to TU/e where he was appointed Full Professor of Chemical Biology in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Brunsveld has received numerous appealing grants, among which ERC Starting, Proof of Concept, and Advanced grants (2008, 2010, and 2023 respectively) and the NWO Vici grant (2015). He was awarded the NVBMB Award of the Dutch Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2010 and the Gold Medal of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society KNCV in 2013. Together with Christian Ottmann (TU/e) and Michelle Arkin (UCSF) Luc Brunsveld is scientific co-founder of Ambagon Therapeutics. https://www.ambagon-therapeutics.com/