Introducing our Authors

Current Position. Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Institute for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS), Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Advisor: Prof. Dr. Maarten Merkx. Education. B.S. and M.S. in Biomedical Engineering, TU/e. Advisor: Prof. Dr. Maarten Merkx. Nonscientific Interests. Tennis, race cycling, playing trumpet in brass band, reading. My research focuses on the engineering of protein switches that can be used for intracellular imaging, rewiring of cell signaling or integration in synthetic signaling circuits. The protein switches that we develop are designed following a modular, synthetic biology type of protein engineering. This paper represents an example of that generic approach, reengineering a previously developed FRET-based Zn2+ sensor into a lightresponsive Zn2+ binding protein based on light-induced dimerization of the Vivid protein (VividZn). VividZn enabled in vitro reversible optical control over Zn2+ binding, and Zn2+ affinities and releasing kinetics were shown to be highly tunable. Looking forward, I am particularly interested in applying either DNAor protein-based synthetic biology strategies for performing industrial tasks or developing therapeutics. (Read Aper’s article; DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.6b00027).