M.Sc. Max de Vries

Research

Throughout my academic journey, I have been fascinated by the use of synthetic small molecules and proteins in combating diseases. During my master's program, I developed a deeper interest in the biological mechanisms underlying disease progression. As a PhD student in the Cell and Chemical Biology Department, I will integrate my expertise in synthetic organic chemistry with my passion for chemical biology to synthesize molecular affinity-based probes. This work aims to deepen our understanding of the ADP ribosylation of ubiquitin and its biological significance.

Curriculum Vitae

In 2020, I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the Applied University of Inholland in Amsterdam. During my undergraduate studies, I focused on synthesizing novel antibiotics targeting multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam within the ENABLE consortium. I continued this line of research as a researcher within the same consortium, developing antibiotics aimed at Shigella bacteria. Additionally, I served as an internship supervisor for third-year pharmaceutical science students at VU, where we worked on compound libraries using a fragment-based approach with the green solvent Cyrene™. In 2023, I earned my Master’s degree in Drug Discovery Sciences from VU in Amsterdam, where my major research topics included photolabile ligands targeting the H₁ receptor and transition metal-catalyzed carbene insertion into isocyanides via α-acyloxy halide carbenoid precursors. I am now pursuing my PhD in the Cell and Chemical Biology Department under the supervision of Gerbrand van der Heden van Noort, where I will develop Ub-ADPr probes to explore cell biology and identify key enzymes for exploitation with small molecule inhibitors.