Meet The Team

Principal Investigator

Wim Velema, PhD, PharmD

Wim graduated from the University of Groningen in 2010 after working with Sabeth Verpoorte and Luke Lee at UC Berkeley. He continued his studies in the lab of Ben Feringa where he obtained his PhD with honors in 2014. He was an EMBO- and Rubicon Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Eric Kool at Stanford University from 2015-2019. Starting in 2020 he was appointed as assistant professor at Radboud University in Nijmegen. His current research focuses on developing chemical biology tools to understand bacterial drug resistance and is supported by an ERC Starting Grant and NWO VIDI. He serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of ACS Infectious Diseases.

PhD Student

Daphne van den Homberg, MSc

Daphne is a PhD candidate in the Velema lab. She obtained her Bachelors and Masters in Biomedical Sciences at the Leiden University Medical Center. During her studies she focused her research on the effect of non-coding RNA  in the group of Prof. Dr. Paul Quax and Prof. Dr. Johann Woijta at the Department of Vascular Surgery at the LUMC and the Department of Internal Medicine II at the Medical University of Vienna, respectively. Before joining the Velema Lab in 2022, she worked as a student research assistant in the Quax group where she published two papers as shared first author. Her current research focusses on prokaryotic riboswitches and error-prone DNA polymerases in the fight against antibiotic resistance.

PhD Student

Phillip Yesley, MSc

Phillip is a PhD candidate in the Velemalab. He finished his master’s degree in Chemistry at the University of Groningen in 2021. During his studies he performed a research internship at the department of molecular genetics  in the group of Prof. Danny Incarnato. The focus of this research was the development of transcriptome-wide  high-throughput screens to detect RNA-ligand interactions. In 2022 he joined the VelemaLab in Nijmegen as a PhD-candidate. His current research focuses on investigating prokaryotic riboswitches in hopes of developing new antibiotics.

PhD Student

Harshitha Ramu, MSc

Harshitha is a PhD candidate in the Velema lab. She obtained her Bachelors in Biotechnology from Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India. She received a Masters in Molecular Mechanisms of Disease from Radboud University. She interned at the Jack Schalken lab in Department of Experimental Urology where she focused on unravelling the function of a long non-coding RNA involved in prostate carcinogenesis. She also performed another internship as an Erasmus+ exchange student at the Padilla-Parra lab in the Department of Infectious Diseases at King’s College London where she worked towards understanding the role of membrane lipids in regulating HIV-1 fusion. In 2022, she joined the Velema Lab in Nijmegen as a PhD candidate. Her project focuses on the development of novel  antibiotics to circumvent the problem of antibiotic resistance.

PhD Student

Georgia Poulladofonou, MSc

Georgia obtained her Bachelors in Chemistry from the University of Athens, Greece in 2020. She continued her studies at Radboud University in Nijmegen following the Master specialization of Molecular Chemistry. After a research internship in the group of Dr. Kevin Neumann she joined the Velema lab for her Master’s internship focusing on the synthesis of fluorogenic probes. Since 2023, Georgia continued her research as a PhD student.

PhD Student

Alexandar Slivkov, MSc

Alex obtained a master’s degree in Medicinal Chemistry from Radboud University in 2024. During his studies he interned in the group of Dr. Dennis Lowik, where he worked on synthesizing novel covalent serine protease inhibitors. For his second internship he joined the group of Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Huck to work on synthesizing photoswitchable urease inhibitors. In 2024 he joined the Velema lab as a PhD student where he will be researching small molecule-RNA interactions.

PhD Student

Peter Kuijken, MSc

Peter is a PhD candidate in the Velema lab. He obtained his Bachelor in Molecular Life Sciences at Radboud University in 2021, where he developed a high-throughput microfluidic device for the fabrication of alginate hydrogel micromotors which resulted in a publication as the second author.  He obtained his MSc in Molecular Sciences at Radboud University in 2024, during which he also published one paper as co-first author and one paper as second author. For his final MSc internship at the VelemaLab he worked on delivery methods of antisense PNA as an antibiotic to prokaryotes. In 2025, he continued with this work alongside alternative exploitations of PNA as a PhD candidate within the group.

PhD Student

Agust Siregar, MRes

Agust is a PhD candidate in the Velema lab. He finished his master's degree in Synthetic Biology at the University College London in 2024. During his study, he develops alternative pipeline for siRNA molecule production through In vitro transcription in the group of Dr. Marco Marques at the Department of Biochemical Engineering, UCL. Before doing his master, he also worked in the Upstream Process Division of Etana Biotech to develop and manufacture mRNA-based vaccine against infectious diseases in Indonesia. In 2025, he joins the Velema lab for his PhD, and the current research focusing on developing new method to quantify the interaction between small molecule drugs and RNA target of interest. His PhD project is also part of the EU MSCA 'TargetRNA' consortium.

MSc Student

Anna Jevtušina, BSc

Anna obtained her bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Radboud University in Nijmegen in 2025. Her bachelor's internship was done at Synthetic Organic Chemistry department at Radboud University, where she synthesized several tripeptides equipped with a nitrile warhead. She is currently getting her master's degree in Medicinal Chemistry at Radboud University. She is joining the VelemaLab for her first internship, where she is focusing on investigating one of the riboswitches with an aim to discover a potential small molecule to inhibit its function. 

MSc Student

Emke Broekaart, BSc

Emke is a master’s student in the Velema Lab. She got her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Avans University of Applied Sciences in 2024. During her Bachelor, she did her graduation internship at the Velema Lab, where she worked on synthesising a photo-activated fluorescent probe. In September 2025, she started her Master’s in Medicinal Chemistry at Radboud University after completing her premaster. For her first master’s internship, she returned to the Velema Lab, where she is now investigating and synthesising new small molecule antibiotics.

MSc Student

Jordy Diaz, BSc

In 2024 I obtained my bachelor’s degree in Chemistry at the HAN University of Applied Sciences in which I did an internship in the Velema group synthesizing riboswitch ligands. Afterwards I proceeded a pre-master at the Radboud University where I am currently following my master Molecular Chemistry and doing my first internship back at the Velema group where this time I’m synthesizing modified DNA nucleotides.

MSc Student

Ágata García, BSc

Ágata obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry at the University of La Rioja, Spain in 2025. In September 2025, she started the master Medicinal Chemistry at Radboud University. Currently, she is doing her first internship at the VelemaLab where she is working on delivery methods of antisense oligonucleotides.

MSc Student

Juan Mejia, BSc

My name is Juan Mejia, and I am a Master’s student in the lab of Wim Velema, where I work on synthesizing molecules that can covalently target RNA riboswitches. I am interested in applying synthetic compounds in various biological systems. Outside the lab, I enjoy reading sci-fi novels, playing field hockey, hiking with friends and playing the guitar.

MSc Student

Lotte Draijer, BSc

Lotte obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Molecular Life Sciences at Wageningen University & Research in 2024. She is currently a second-year Master’s student continuing the same program. As part of her studies, she is conducting her Master’s internship at the VelemaLab, where she investigates transporters involved in the siderophore-mediated iron uptake system in E. Coli.

MSc Student

Benedetta Mendola, BSc

Benedetta obtained her bachelor's degree from Maastricht University in 2025. She specialized with a curriculum in Biochemistry, with a Bachelor Thesis research in the Sensor Engineering Department working on the synthesis of Molecularly Imprinted Polymers for the detection of dipicolinic acid in food samples. She then started her Master in Medicinal Chemistry at Radboud University in 2025. For her first master's internship, she is working at Velema Lab, investigating the selectivity of antisense oligonucleotides .