Kristina Haslinger awarded NWO Vidi grant

Dr. Kristina Haslinger has been awarded an NWO Vidi 2023 grant on her proposal to investigate a Microbial biosynthetic platform for ARomatic MerOTerpenoids (MARMOT).

Many pharmaceutical drugs are based on chemicals found in nature. These chemicals are produced by plants, fungi, and bacteria with the help of specialized biocatalysts (enzymes). Biochemists can “borrow” these enzymes to build valuable chemicals on a large scale and in an environmentally friendly way. They can also produce new versions of such chemicals, with even more powerful pharmaceutical properties, by mixing and matching enzymes from different organisms in a combinatorial fashion. In the MARMOT project, Dr. Kristina Haslinger and her team will expand the catalogue of enzymes available for such a combinatorial approach and develop sustainable production routes for aromatic meroterpenoids of pharmaceutical importance.

As one of two Vidi laureates of the Faculty of Science and Engineering in this round, Kristina celebrated this milestone achievement with her colleagues of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Biology.