Personal information
Anouk Rijs is full professor of Analytics of Biomolecular Interactions in the Division of BioAnalytical Chemistry at the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam since 2020.
Education
2020 - present Full Professor Analytics of Biomolecular Interactions, AIMMS - Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam, VICI laureate
2019 Visiting professor at UC Santa Barbara with prof. Mike Bowers
2019 - 2020 Associate professor at FELIX Laboratory, Radboud University
2015 - 2016 Mildred Dresselhaus Guest Professor at CFEL, DESY, Universitat Hamburg
2012 - 2019 Assistant professor at FELIX Laboratory, Radboud University
2007 - 2011 Senior Scientist and VENI Laureate at FOM Institute Rijnhuizen (later: DIFFER)
2003 - 2006 Post-Doc with prof. Wybren Jan Buma (UvA), prof. Mattanjah de Vries (UCSB)
1999 - 2003 PhD student at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (prof. dr. M.H.M. Janssen), University of Amsterdam (prof. C.A. de Lange) with regular visits to Sandia National Labs Livermore (dr. C..C. Hayden)
Academic Activities (selected)
Deputy Chair of the editorial board of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP) of the Royal Society of Chemistry
Board Member NWO Research Community Fundamentals & Methods of Chemistry
Lorentz Center (Center for Interactive Scientific Workshops), Leiden (NL), Physics Advisory Board
Conference Organization:
- Member of the local organization team of International Mass Spectrometry Conference IMSC2022 (Maastricht, the Netherlands)
- Chair of the 10th international conference “Isolated Biomolecules and Biomolecular Interactions” in 2018 (IBBI2018) bringing together leading scientists working in fields of spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and theory.
- Chair of the organization committee for the 27th International Symposium for Molecular Beams 2017 held in Nijmegen, the Netherlands (ISMB2017)
Research
The research of the Division of BioAnalytical Chemistry focuses on the development and application of novel, multidimensional analytics, such as mass spectrometric, chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques, for (glycol)proteomics, metabolomics, biomolecular interactions, drug characteristics and insights in biological and chemical processes. The Rijs group combines molecular spectroscopy (IR, UV) with (ion mobility) mass spectrometry for the structural characterization and elucidation of molecular mechanisms to understand biological processes at the molecular level. The group particularly interested in peptide and protein aggregation related to neurodegenerative diseases.
Withing the recent awarded VICI grant, we will develop a unique, 4-dimensional IR-MS based technology, which measures the temporal evolution, size, shape and structure, to probe structure and kinetics in one single experiment. This will be achieved by the novel combination of droplet-based microfluidics electrospray ionization and ion mobility mass spectrometry with IR ion spectroscopy. This will allow us to unravel and ultimately control and inhibit the aggregation mechanism of Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease.
