Huib Ovaa, Professor Leiden University Medical Center, Department of Cell and Chemical Biology, Leiden, the Netherlands
Education/training: Maters’s 01-07-1997, studies Chemistry, Main subject Organic Synthesis, Leiden University the Netherlands. Doctorate/PhD 03-10-2001 Phd, title of thesis ‘Synthetic Organic Chemistry’, supervisor J.H. van Boom/H.S. Overkleeft, Leiden University the Netherlands.
Positions and employment: 2015-present: Professor Leiden University Medical Center; 2016-present: Professor Leiden University; 2016-present Guest Researcher Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI); 2012-2016: Extraordinary Professor Leiden University; 2010-2013:0.1FTE C.S.O. UbiQ Bio B.V.; 2009-2016: Tenured staff member Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI); 2005-2012: Assistant Professor, Leiden University, the Netherlands; 2004-2009: Junior group leader, Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI); 2004-2005: Guest Researcher, Leiden University; 2003-2004: Instructor in Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, U.S.A.; 2001-2003: Post-doctoral fellow, Harvard Medical School, Boston U.S.A.
Research Field: Chemical Biology. My group specializes in the development of novel techniques to profile cellular enzymatic activities associated primarily with ubiquitin-mediated proteasomal degradation and antigen presentation. We use an organic synthesis driven approach in order to gain further understanding of the cellular processes under investigation by preparing small molecule-activity modulators and synthetic protein- reporters on enzymatic activities by both rational design and by en masse screening of small molecule libraries followed by hit-optimization and subsequent development of research tools.