Sascha Hoogendoorn

Visiting Scientist, Student
E-mail: hoogendoorn.sascha@gmail.com

Training and Education

BSc, Chemistry, Leiden University, The Netherlands (2007)
BSc, Biopharmaceutical Sciences, Leiden University, The Netherlands (2008)
MSc, Chemistry, Leiden University, The Netherlands (expected graduation November 2008)

Current Research

Hemopressin was recently found to be a novel CB1 receptor inverse agonist. Docking of hemopressin in an existing model of the receptor resulted in the identification of several amino acids that might be important for high-affinity hemopressin binding. In this project, I use cells that express mutant CB1 receptors to elucidate the binding of hemopressin to the receptor. Furthermore, several longer forms of hemopressin were found to have distinct signalling properties. It is interesting to see what the functional properties are of other hemopressin analogs. In this way, the overall structure of the peptides can be correlated with their ability to bind to and signal through the CB1 receptor.

Awards

Fellowship, Dr. Saal van Zwanenberg foundation, Organon, The Netherlands (2008).