New iCNS PhD candidates at Leiden University
2 June 2025
We are excited to announce that two new PhD candidates have joined the iCNS team!
Jessica Hoang and Tijn Vleeshouwer will be working at Leiden University (LU) as part of Work Package 4, which focuses on the development of chemical probes and methods to visualize protein modifications within the molecular human brain atlas project.
Jessica Hoang started on July 1st, 2025. She holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences from Leiden University. During her master’s, she completed an internship at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR), where she focused on designing and synthesizing novel chemical modalities. She also gained research experience during an internship at Roche in Basel, where she worked under the supervision of Philipp Schmid and Uwe Grether on the development of potential drug candidates. For her PhD, supervised by Kim Bonger and Martijn Verdoes, Jessica will develop activity-based probes to visualize proteins at the neuron-glia interface. Her work aims to uncover the role of these proteins in neuropsychiatric disorders.
Tijn Vleeshouwer joined the iCNS team on April 1, 2025, as a PhD candidate at Leiden University. He obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Life Science and Technology from LU. During his master’s internship, he investigated disrupted metabolic pathways and metabolites involved in lysosomal storage diseases at the Department of Medicinal Biochemistry at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry. His bachelor’s internship was also conducted at the LIC, within the Chemical Immunology group headed by Sander van Kasteren, who now serves as his PhD supervisor. Tijn’s PhD project focuses on developing a CLEM- and click-chemistry-based method to visualize post-translational protein modifications in the brain at nanoscale resolution using STORM microscopy. His work will focus on the endocannabinoid system and neuron-microglia interactions in the context of psychiatric disorders.
We are delighted to welcome these talented researchers to the team and look forward to their contributions to the iCNS project!
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