Patricia Dankers

Patricia Dankers is a Full Professor of Biomedical Materials at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). She leads the DankersLab, focused on developing functional biomaterials using supramolecular chemistry for regenerative medicine applications. Her research emphasizes designing adaptive materials to control biological processes in the human body.

Academic Background: Dankers earned her PhD in Chemistry at TU/e (2006) and a second PhD in Medical Sciences at Groningen University (2013). She held roles at SupraPolix, UMCG, and as a visiting professor at Northwestern University (2010). Her career progression includes appointments as Assistant Professor (2008), Associate Professor (2014), and Full Professor (2017).

Research Interests: Her lab explores supramolecular polymers, hydrogels for drug delivery, antimicrobial surfaces, and in situ tissue engineering. Key areas include tuning material properties via molecular design and high-throughput screening for biomaterial-cell interactions.

Grants & Awards: Veni (2008), Vidi (2017), ERC Starting Grant (2012), DSM Science & Technology Award, Pauline van Wachem Award, and membership in prestigious academies like DJA (KNAW) and Academia Europaea.

Advising & Labs: Supervised PhD candidates including Boris Arts, Riccardo Bellan, and Maritza Rovers. Active in startups like Dankers Group BV and UPyTher, and chairs roles in institutions like DWI Leibniz Institute and the Smart Biomaterials Consortium.

Labs & Teams: Heads the Biomedical Materials & Chemistry group within TU/e’s ICMS and collaborates internationally on projects like kidney regeneration and synthetic heart valves.