DLO Researcher
I have been a researcher at Wageningen University & Research since 1997. I am especially concerned with natural substances from plants that give color, smell and taste, health and firmness, for example to flowers, tubers or fruit. I am fascinated by the question of how plants produce substances. Why is the one flower pink, the other purple and again another yellow? Why does a raspberry taste like raspberries? Why is one tomato more delicious than the other? You can approach that question in different ways. As a molecular biologist and biochemist, I want to know how to make those substances, how to construct those substances in a number of steps, which enzymes the plant uses and how these enzymes are regulated so that, for example, one tomato is more delicious than the other . If I think I know what it's like, I'll test whether I've understood it correctly: For example, I will see if I can make a purple color thanks to enzymes in places where it's not yet found in nature. This way, I can investigate what happens to a plant when it turns purple. Does he live longer? Does he get another shape? Are butterflies on it? and so on. With this knowledge, I hope to understand how beautiful plants come together. In addition to this interest in fundamental issues, I have a lot of experience with applied research, and I like to often work with companies. It's fun if you can use knowledge in surprising ways, for example, to make raw materials for plastic in a different, more sustainable manner, ensuring that we are no longer dependent on oil or gas. The plant has the future!
We want to move away from the use of petroleum-based plastics. The downsides of petroleum are well known: its use results in considerable CO2 emissions and it will eventually run out, and therefore also become expensive. Plastics can also be produced using sustainable raw materials such as starch or lactic acid. The problem, however, is that petroplastics have some important properties that we do not want to have to give up.