Radboud University

Radboud University – Department of Synthetic Organic Chemistry

The Department of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, led by Professor Floris Rutjes, has a wide experience and international track record in the design and synthesis of biologically relevant molecules. The department focuses particularly on research and development of catalytic methods to prepare versatile building blocks for the chemical synthesis of biologically active compounds, and natural products. This research has resulted in a wide variety of new types of molecules including alkaloids, aminoglycoside antibiotics with locked 3D conformation, fluorescent-labeled peptides for the monitoring of the blood clotting, new metabolically stable glycopeptides, heterocyclic compound libraries and chemical tools ("probes") for coupling synthetic compounds to proteins and antibodies.

The department of Synthetic Organic Chemistry is embedded in the ‘Institute for Molecules and Materials’ (IMM) and the ‘Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences’ of the Radboud Universiteit. Prof. Rutjes has successfully worked together with renowned national and international academic groups, research institutes and biotech and pharmaceutical companies resulting in both scientific publications, granted patents and prototypes of commercial products. For his scientific contributions he received the prestigious Gold Medal of the Royal Dutch Chemical Society (KNCV). Besides his research commitments, Prof. Rutjes holds the position of Director of Education of the Institute of Molecular Science, is Project Chair "Innovation Labs" within Topsector Chemicals and is the current Chairman of the KNCV.
Prof. Rutjes has a track record in valorizing the research of his group as evidenced by the emergence of five spin-off companies the past fifteen years including Chiralix, Future Chemistry and SynAffix. For his role in the field of Science and Entrepreneurship, he received in 2008 the prize for ‘Most Entrepreneurial Scientist’ in the Netherlands.