Drug Discovery and Safety

PhD at the research group Drug Design and Synthesis

"After I received my bachelor’s degree in organic chemistry at the HLO in Rotterdam I started to work at the bioanalytical laboratories of DSM. I liked the work at DSM but I soon started to miss organic synthesis. I’m intrigued by how chemical substances can influence human physiology. When I heard about the Drug Design and Synthesis research group at VU University Amsterdam, I decided to give up my job at DSM and started with the Master’s programme in Pharmacochemistry at VU University Amsterdam. I did an external traineeship at the medicinal chemistry department of Boehringer Ingelheim in Vienna. This was a great experience. It was nice to work in an industrial environment and I learned a lot, in particular with respect to parallel chemistry approaches. I finalized my Master’s degree by writing a thesis. This thesis is now being used as a premise for a research line in the medicinal chemistry group. I recently received the Dr. Teake Bultsma Award for best Master’s thesis in 2006. I also received a ‘talented student's grant’ from VU University Amsterdam, which enabled me to get involved in a chem-informatics project, in which a proprietary library of 1200 fragments was constructed.Ewald started his PhD project in September 2006. The project is being carried out in the medicinal chemistry group of Professor Rob Leurs. “I’m very excited about this project” says Ewald, “We work together with two prestigious research groups, namely the Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology Department at VU University Amsterdam and the Molecular Carcinogenesis Department at the Netherlands Cancer Institute NKI. Furthermore, Solvay Pharmaceuticals and Organon, Inc. are actively involved in this project." Ewald Edink

Second year student of Drug Discovery and Safety @ VU University Amsterdam

"After completing my baccalaureate in pharmacology, I Knew I wanted to continue with medical research. Whilst browsing through pharmacology research fields, my attention was captured by molecular pharmacology. The Faculty of Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, offers this field of specialisation as part of the master program Drug Discovery and Safety, a pharmacochemistry discipline. This program not only allows me to specialise in this field but also introduces me to other associated fields such as drug design and synthesis. At the start of the program I was able to get an insight of 3 other specialisations which broadened my knowledge of this discipline. I chose this program because it is flexible, full of diverse research methodology and, in my opinion, has international appeal. The program is both taught and research, a combination that has given me the opportunity to be educated by lead researchers as well as work alongside them. Everyone within the faculty is very approachable and passionate about their research making the atmosphere friendly and motivating. VU University is a well established educational institute with faculty members and students working together towards innovative discoveries. I have learned a wealth of knowledge from my chosen specialisation and know that I can go a lot further with it thus I am pleased that I have chosen to come to VU University for the masters." Sarah Elkhalifa

Internship @ Boehringer Ingelheim, Vienna, Austria

"After doing some research on the internet on pharmaceutical companies, I found out that Boehringer Ingelheim has an R&D site in Vienna which focuses on Oncology, my main interest. The Medicinal Chemistry department has contacts with Boehringer Ingelheim, which made them easy to approach. I was an intern in the Lead Discovery department. We were working on the biological properties of a Tyrosine kinase inhibitor.Doing research in a company has big advantages. You have your own workflow in cell culture, you don’t need to fill your pipette tips (cleaning staff do this), you use pre-made acryl amide gels for protein separations and you have your own workspace in the office. Also, I was able to use some of the new techniques available by biotech companies, which was very educational and loads of fun. The biggest disadvantage I would say is that you don’t have the freedom to experiment. You have to keep in mind that you are working on a certain target, and the research you do is only focused on improving methods, repeating some experiments from literature and validating data. There is no searching for the unknown.The whole experience was amazing and I am very happy I decided to go abroad and that I got this opportunity. I would recommend it to everyone, because you really do learn a lot and you have a splendid time!" Azra Delic

Internship @ The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia