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My name is Hanka Venselaar, Dutch, department of Bioinformatics aka the CMBI, theme Nanomedicine.
I study protein structures in 3D and try to unravel the links between variations in these structures and their effect on health and disease.
When you were a kid what did you want to be when you grew up? Can you tell us something about your child years.
I grew up in a small town near Tilburg where I followed the "normal" path from primary, to secondary, to high school. As a kid, I wanted to become a dance teacher. Later, this idea changed a bit and I wanted to do the academy for physical education (ALO) to become a sports teacher. I was an active gymnast, doing competitions etc, and I did spend half of my time doing gymnastics and the other half I spent in school. This might sound boring to some of you but I loved it!
What was your previous academic training, where did you study and why that study?
Somewhere during the 5th year in highschool, I became interested in life and all it secrets. I was very curious to find out how things work on a molecular level and my favorite topics where biology and chemistry. I visited an "open day" for the brand new Molecular Life Sciences study in Nijmegen and knew immediatly "This is it! Now I will find out how life works!"
The first thing I learned was how much we don't know, of course...but still, the combination of chemistry and biology, with a focus on the basic mechanisms of health and disease was exactly what I wanted.
The RIMLS motto is: ‘Today’s molecules for tomorrow’s medicine’. What does this mean for you?
I am the lucky one who gets to look at life on an atomic scale. The 3D-models we use and create can provide a great insight in the effect of mutations, the function of proteins and this can provide those ideas that will eventually lead to better medicines and therapies. I always hope that even the smallest protein model I create will help a patient one day.
Who is your great example as scientists? And please give a motivation why.
Margaret Dayhoff, she was one of the first female pioneers in the world of computer science and bioinformatics. Her work led to the creation of some basic algoritms that we still use today. Also, It must have been difficult to be the only woman in a male-dominated field of science.
Which research discovery that you have made has made you most proud?
It is not exactly a discovery, but the creation of our automatic mutant analysis server called HOPE makes me quite proud. Mainly because it provides acces to variant effect predictions for those who do not have a structural bioinformatician around the corner. Our users are located all over the world and it is good to know that even someone in Pakistan is using this server to upgrade his/her research.
Given unlimited finance what experiment would you perform?
I would love to be able to look at the 3D-structure of each and every protein in the
human body. However, the crystalization experiments needed to determine these structure are difficult and time-consuming. As a result, there is still a large part of the human protein structures of which the conformation is unknown. On top of that, proteins do often work in complexes with other molecules. These biological complexes are often missing in the current databases. In the ideal situation, we find a way to predict these complexes and use them for better variant analyses.
What does your working area (desk, office) look like and what does it say about you (or your research)?
I use a windows laptop for writing, reading, presentations, etc. I also have a Linux pc that I use to build the 3D-models. Besides that you will find lots of papers (in neat piles!) on my desk because I very often work on many different projects at the same time. I think you can describe it as an organised mess ;-) You will also see a few random items that I have received as gifts from other people and from companies to thank me for the work I did. On the wall you see a picture of a snowy mountain because I love to be outside.
Nominate a colleague to be in the spotlight and what would you like to ask him or her?
I would like to nominate our newly appointed professor Peter-Bram 't Hoen because I am really curious what he thinks about his new working environment here at Radboudumc.
What type of person are you, quick insights:
a) Mac or PC? : PC, (my laptop also travels the world with me)b) Theater or cinema? : Difficult because I like both, but if I really have to choose.... I love these old red-velvet-chairs-golden-chandeliers types of theatres...even better if I get to be on stage
c) Dine out or dine in? : Dine in, I like it when I don't have to cook, but because of our busy schedule me and my boyfriend hardly ever have an evening together. So therefore the moments we have a simple dinner together at home are precious.
d) Ferrari or Fiat? : Couldn't care less. I tried to avoid cars
e) Shopaholic or chocoholic? : Chocolate! Everywhere...anytime
f) Culture or Nature : Nature, although I do like dance, acrobatics and musicals a lot​
