Four teams selected for NWO call Top Sector Chemistry Student Competition 2016

Four projects have been selected for the Top Sector Chemistry Student Competition for 2016. The division of Chemical Sciences of NWO organized this student competition together with the Top Sector Chemistry. The winning team will be announced during CHAINS 2016 in December of this year. Teams of Master students were invited to submit ideas for interesting and creative research projects, focusing on societal or industrial research questions. Master students in chemistry were able to apply, but also interdisciplinary teams with students in e.g. biology, physics, computer science, as long as the research question had a strong chemical and/or molecular component. The selected teams are:

Team Bugbusters (Chris van Heerewaarden, Nittert Marinus, Jeannine Bathke) - Bringing β-Lactam Antibiotics Back to Life;
Team Lutein 2.0 (Boudewijn Brandt, Stefano Canziani) - Novel lutein extraction from microalgae;
Team Perfect Package (Sjoerd van Dongen, Layla Broers, Veerle de Goederen) - Natural Nanoparticles for Improved Bioplastics;
Team Salt sensors (Karin de Groot, Suzan Spoelstra) - In silico screening of candidate salt sensor proteins.

The deadline was February 25, 2016. The budget available is approximately € 80,000. Financing is up to € 27,000 for a project for three students, and € 18,000 for a project for two students.