Jan van Hest

Jan van Hest is a Full Professor of Bio-organic Chemistry at Eindhoven University of Technology (since 2016), concurrently affiliated with the Department of Chemical Engineering & Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering. Previously, he held a Full Professorship at Radboud University (1999-2016). He leads the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS) as Scientific Director since 2017, focusing on nanomedicine and artificial cell research. His work integrates polymer science and protein engineering to create smart biomaterials for medical applications like cancer treatment and immunology.

• Education:
  • PhD in Macro-Organic Chemistry (Eindhoven University of Technology, 1996)
  • Postdoc at University of Massachusetts (1996-1997) under Prof. D.A. Tirrell
• Research Interests: Design of biohybrid systems, synthetic vaccines, adaptive nanomaterials, and artificial organelles.

Van Hest has secured major grants including the ERC Advanced Grant (2016), VICI grant (2010), and two 10-year Gravitation Programmes (Functional Molecular Systems (2012) and Interactive Polymer Materials (2022)). He is a Spinoza Award recipient (2020), the Netherlands' highest scientific honor, and a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (2019). He co-founded start-ups Encapson, FutureChemistry, Noviosense, and Noviotech.

His lab develops life-like compartments for drug delivery and synthetic biology, emphasizing biomimetic approaches to address challenges in nanomedicine and regenerative medicine.