Reportedly, Lieke had a huge jet lag when she started her research internship within Eelco Ruijter's group for Organic Chemistry in 2022. When she thinks back to that moment, she starts laughing spontaneously. She explains: "I had just returned from a VSCVU study trip to Boston. Due to a jet lag, I was super tired. But on my first internship day, I was immediately thrown in at the deep end. I was allowed to go straight to the lab to start my research. I found that to be quite challenging. The first week was pretty intense. Of course, you meet a lot of new people and gain a lot of new impressions, but I did enjoy my internship immensely right from the start."
That she would join Eelco's group for her internship was immediately clear to her after she took a course with him. She says she was impressed by Eelco's way of teaching. "I found his courses very interesting and I think he is a very nice professor. I asked Eelco if I could do an internship with him, and fortunately that was possible. He Informed me about the different projects they were working on at the time. All of the projects resonated with me, but I left it up to Eelco to pick a project that he thought suited me."
Reducing symptoms of Alzheimer's disease
The project Lieke was assigned to was on natural product synthesis, which is trying to obtain a natural product in a chemical way. It turned out to be a great fit. "The product I was working on is called zephycarinatin and zephygranditin alkaloids. That is a substance that is present in a Japanese flower. From that substance, people used to make drugs in Japan that they suspected reduced Alzheimer's symptoms. But to acquire one milligram of the substance, you need a hundred kilograms of dried flowers. So, in short my undergraduate thesis was about synthetizing an interesting lead for symptom reduction in Alzheimer's. This compound thus derived from the Zephyrenhtes carinata plant exhibited properties of acetylcholine esterase (AChE) inhibitors. Acetylcholine esterase (AChE) inhibitors have shown promising results for reducing the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. The zephyrenthes carinata plant contains zephycarinatin and zephygranditin alkaloids that have demonstrated these (AChE) inhibitory properties. Since direct isolation of these alkaloids from the plant is inefficient, I focused on finding new and more efficient synthetic routes to these naturally compounded alkaloids, using multicomponent chemistry and dearomative palladium catalysis. I found it an inspiring project that also suited me very well."
After completing her thesis, Lieke received an e-mail from Eelco informing her that he has nominated her for the Karlijn Keijzer Scriptieprijs. For Lieke, this was quite a special moment. "I was at the presentation of the winners of last year's Karlijn Keijzer Scriptieprijs. That I would be nominated myself a year later, was something I did not see coming at all," she explains with a smile on her face. "I was therefore pleasantly surprised! I am very honoured that my thesis has made it this far to be nominated for the Karlijn Keijzer Scripetieprijs." On the winner Karen Swart, she has this to say; "Karen deserves to win the prize!"
The jury about Lieke and Karen
"Also this year it was very difficult to choose the winner. With winner Karen Swart and runner-up Lieke Mizee (winner of the FAR poster competition in June 2022), there were two excellent candidates nominated. Karen and Lieke managed to impress the jury with their outstanding graduation research and thesis and their supervisors nomination."
Karlijn Keijzer Scriptieprijs ceremony
The Karlijn Keijzer Thesis Award will be presented on Thursday 29 June at 16.30 in the auditorium of the O|2 building.