MEET THE TEAM
Ivana Drienovská
Ivana is an Associate Professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She obtained her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Biochemistry from Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic, where she developed a passion for enzymology while studying extremophilic haloalkane dehalogenases at the Loschmidt Laboratories.
She went on to complete her PhD in Organic Chemistry at the Stratingh Institute for Chemistry, University of Groningen, in 2017, under the supervision of Prof. Gerard Roelfes. This was followed by postdoctoral research in Biotechnology at Graz University of Technology, in the group of Prof. Robert Kourist.
Ivana has been awarded a NWO Veni (2020), the Bertus Kemp Stipendium (2021), and a NWO Vidi (2024). She currently coordinates the MSCA Doctoral Network BiocatCodeExpander, a consortium of 18 international academic and industrial partners (awarded 2022).
Principal Investigator
Bart obtained his BSc and MSc degrees in Chemistry from the University of Groningen, where he also completed his PhD in biomolecular chemistry and catalysis in 2025 under the supervision of Prof. Gerard Roelfes. His PhD research focused on the exploration of new protein scaffolds and noncanonical amino acids for the creation of artificial enzymes. As a postdoctoral researcher, he is currently applying his expertise to develop novel artificial enzymes for new-to-nature reactions.
Postdoctoral researcherBart Brouwer
Rasmus holds a Master of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Gothenburg and has been with the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam since 2022. He specialises in protein purification and X-ray crystallography. He has worked with a variety of proteins, from snake venoms to transcription factors.
Laboratory ManagerRasmus Klintrot
Jan Hendrik Illies
Jan Hendrik's academic background includes an MSc in Biochemistry from the University of Leipzig and a BSc from the University of Bayreuth. His training was further shaped by industrial internships and a master's thesis completed at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, which equipped him with hands-on expertise in molecular biotechnology and biocatalysis. His doctoral research focuses on engineering a biosynthetic pathway to produce non-canonical amino acids and their subsequent integration into model proteins.
PhD student
Emilia Iglesias Moncayo
Emilia is from Ecuador. Her journey in science began with a bachelor's degree in Chemistry at Yachay Tech University in Ecuador, where she discovered her passion for the field. This passion led her to pursue the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master's Degree (EMJMD) in Sustainable Catalysis at the University of Poitiers and the University of Aveiro. She is currently a PhD candidate at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in Dr. Ivana Drienovská's laboratory as part of the MSCA Doctoral Network BiocatCodeExpander. Her research focuses on the design of artificial enzymes incorporating secondary and tertiary amine-based non-canonical amino acids. Her project spans multiple disciplines, including organic chemistry, computational chemistry, and (photo)biocatalysis, providing her with broad interdisciplinary expertise. Outside the laboratory, Emilia enjoys dancing salsa, cycling, and skating.
PhD student
Sigrid has a background in biochemistry and completed her master's studies in Graz, Austria. She is currently pursuing her PhD, where she focuses on enzymatic fluorination. She is particularly interested in integrating enzyme design approaches with experimental wet-lab characterisation, and through this combined strategy, aims to uncover new mechanistic insights into fluorination reactions.
PhD studentSigrid Kaltenbrunner
Annabelle Heersink
Annabelle is a Master’s student in Drug Discovery and Science at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She is carrying out her Master’s research project in the Drienovská lab in collaboration with the group of Prof. Wijtmans & Prof. de Esch, where she is working on the development of biocatalytic methods for the synthesis of molecular fragments of potential interest for medicinal applications.
Master student
Associated members
George Hutchins
George is a postdoc at the VU working with the group of Prof. Tom Grossmann and Dr. Drienovská. George’s background is in (computational) protein design and engineering, with a current focus on the stabilization of biotherapeutic proteins by chemical modification, including developing "INCYPRO" technology alongside VU spin-off Incircular.
Postdoctoral researcher
Moritz Weber
Moritz completed his Master’s degree and PhD at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. He is currently a visiting postdoctoral researcher supported by a Walter Benjamin Fellowship, working in the Drienovská lab in collaboration with Prof. Jongkees’s group.
Postdoctoral researcher