females to follow finalist 
GUIDING Star


Laura Heitman

Professor
Leiden University


About Laura Heitman

"As a Professor of Molecular Pharmacology, I am hunting for new and better medicines. Professors are usually male characters in books and played by middle-aged grey men in movies. As a woman and mother, I feel it is time to lift this stereotype and replace this image by a more inclusive one. Receiving this award will help me on my mission to be a role model for all ambitious young female scientists, of which there are still too few in the higher ranks. I will continue to dedicate myself to changing the current scientific environment into a more “humane” one.”

As a Professor, Laura Heitman leads a team of PhD students and PostDocs in doing research. Next to that she teaches bachelor and master students in BioPharmaceutical Sciences. Lastly, she is active in several boards and committees, both national and international.

  

Biography

Laura H. Heitman obtained her PhD in 2009, after which she started as a tenure track assistant professor during which she worked at several (inter)national labs as a guest scientist. She received tenure in 2015, and in 2020 became full professor of Molecular Pharmacology at the Division of Drug Discovery and Safety at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (Leiden University), and at Oncode Institute. 

Her research interests are mainly focused on understanding and improving drug-receptor interactions, and more specifically, target binding kinetics and allosteric modulation of GPCRs and other membrane proteins, such as SLCs. She has obtained several competitive research grants, both personal and as part of consortia, all allowing her to study these novel, clinically relevant and highly translational concepts for drug action. Her research activities have currently led to an authorship on over 110 papers in this field, including one in Science (2012) and one in Nature (2016) with an H-index of 37. 

Lastly, she is the recipient of multiple awards (e.g. the ‘2017 MedChemComm Emerging Investigator’-award, runner up for the ‘2018 Prix Galien Research’-award).

For more info about Laura Heitman:

Website:             https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/laura-heitman 

LinkedIn:            https://nl.linkedin.com/in/laura-heitman-293347b

Twitter:               https://twitter.com/Heitman_lab

What others say ...

About our finalist

Laura is an excellent candidate for the Science TOPX Females to Follow awards. She has very rapidly progressed in the field of receptor research/drug discovery through a) abundant and high-impact scientific output (including publications in Nature and Science), b) inspirational leader- and mentorship, and c) creative and pioneering teaching, all with an open eye for female and otherwise inclusive talent development. 

Powered by:
Hyphen Projects BV   

    Connect with us                  

Join TOPX
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions 
Chamber of Commerce: 32110979
VAT no: NL8184.34.491.B01
         
  
  
  
                                     
SIGN UP AS A MEMBER NOW
© Copyright 2020 by Hyphen Projects