The Executive Board has appointed Dr. Nynke Dekker Professor Single-molecule nanoscale biophysics in the faculty of Applied Sciences and the department Nanoscience. This is one of the five chairs within the 3TU Centre of Excellence on Bionano Applications (of which two are based at TU Delft / faculty of Applied Sciences).
With her research in single molecule studies of DNA/RNA and their interaction with proteins, Dekker will play an important part in the new department of Bionanoscience in the faculty of Applied Sciences. Therefore, the chair that she will hold will be one of the key chairs in this new department. Nynke Dekker’s research group works on the borderline of biology and physics, and therefore uses advanced microscopy and nanotechnology to study biological processes. Next to fundamental interests, the research will also be used in medical applications. Typical for these applications is the successful research in topoisomerases, proteins that influence the topology of DNA. These proteins are the target of medicines against cancer, that are used in clinical applications.