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Dr. Eva J. Meeus

Board Member

Dr. Eva Meeus

Nice to meet you! I’m Eva, and I have two great passions: chemistry and skiing, although the latter might be a bit less relevant here…

I discovered my passion for chemistry at the University of Amsterdam, where I also completed my PhD in early 2024. During my PhD research, I worked on transition metal-catalysed reactions in water, with applications in in vivo chemistry; that is, chemistry within living cells. During my PhD, I also had the opportunity to go to the University of Basel (Switzerland), where I immersed myself in the field of artificial metalloenzymes.

Afterwards, as a postdoc at ETH Zurich (Switzerland), I made the switch to peptide chemistry and worked on synthetic methods to selectively modify the amino acid tryptophan in peptide-based medicines, alongside new strategies for catalysing reactions, such as shuttle catalysis. That combination of fields – organic synthesis, catalysis and peptides – now forms the basis of my research.

Since January 2026, I have been an assistant professor at Wageningen University, where I have set up my own research group within the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry. Here, I work with my team on developing bio-orthogonal catalysts based on peptides and new chemical methods for locally activating drugs, with therapeutic applications as the goal.

What do I enjoy most about doing research? That you are constantly making new connections, not only between molecules, but also between disciplines, ideas and people. I hope to bring that same curiosity and connecting role to the KNCV as well.