Niek grew up in the Netherlands, surrounded by water, and it is therefore not surprising that research in our group is aimed at understanding reactions and interactions in aqueous solutions. Our research is focused on two main areas.

The first area is the development of conjugated DNA-binders with useful optoelectronic properties for application as sensitisers in molecular diagnostics and biosensors, for use in forensics, as well as for use in self-assembled nanobioelectronic systems. Our contributions to this area include the synthesis of new DNA-binding compounds and studies of their DNA-binding properties using a variety of biophysical techniques. To support these studies, we also develop data-analysis software, in particular software for the analysis of isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) data for complex coupled equilibria.