Even though I am born in the Netherlands, people frequently think I am Swiss. After having lived and worked in Switzerland since December 2005, I cannot blame you for that!

After nearly 8 years in Switzerland, it was terribly hard to leave that country again. But: The perspective of doing research at one of the leading laboratories on enzyme design, convinced me it is the right decision. With a delay of 2.5 years I have finally joined the group in November 2013.

My research focuses on the design of new catalysts to break down the highly toxic part of small phosphor-containing organic molecules. In my approach, I use a small naturally conserved motif as template for the design.

Even the smallest changes can quickly influence the experimental outcome of the design. Obviously, you cannot simply extract a small conserved motif from its natural environment and simultaneously hope to have conserved all the requirement properties at the same time. To understand and control these issues, a large amount of folding calculations have to be performed. If multiple small issues occur at the same time, the number of plausible models quickly grow to vast numbers. For this purpose Rosetta@home is most welcome, because its vast computational power returns us useful hints to rapidly identify weak points of the naturally occurring motif and/or any intermediate design state. And most important, the number of calculations that Rosetta@home can deal with, helps the laboratory to optimize any design based on a sound scientific foundation.

Sincerely yours,
Ruud

Welcome, and thank you for sharing the details of your work!

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Hi, Ruud:

Welcome to Rosetta@home!

John

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