Rate My Professor Kim Bonger

Kim Bonger is Professor of Chemical Biology at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry within the Faculty of Science at Leiden University. A first-generation academic, she obtained her BSc in Organic Chemistry from Hogeschool Leiden in 2001, her MSc in Organic Chemistry from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2002, and her PhD in bioorganic chemistry from Leiden University in 2008. Her doctoral thesis, titled “Dimeric ligands for GPCRs involved in reproduction: Synthesis and biological evaluation,” was supervised by Prof. H.S. Overkleeft and Prof. G.A. van der Marel. After her PhD, Bonger conducted postdoctoral research at Stanford University from 2009 to 2012 in the laboratory of Prof. T.J. Wandless, where she developed molecular tools to control protein stability. She joined Radboud University in 2013 as an Assistant Professor in Chemical Biology, was promoted to Associate Professor with ius promovendi in 2021, and moved to Leiden University as Associate Professor in 2024 before her recent appointment as Full Professor in 2025.

Bonger's research focuses on the development of novel bioorthogonal chemistry and chemoenzymatic methods for imaging, target discovery, and precision therapeutics. She designs molecular probes to explore and modulate cellular mechanisms in (auto)immune diseases, contributing to chemical biology and immunology. Since 2013, she has supervised 15 PhD candidates and 6 postdoctoral researchers. Her achievements include major grants such as the ERC Starting Grant (1.5 million euros, 2018), ERC Consolidator Grant (2.5 million euros, 2023), ERC Proof of Concept Grant (2024), Aspasia Grant from NWO (2021), and the Radboud Women Professor Network Prize (2017). With over 52 peer-reviewed publications amassing more than 1,800 citations and an h-index of 23, her influential work includes “Environment-Sensitive Fluorescent Probe Enables Live Cell Imaging of Myeloperoxidase Activity during NETosis” (Communications Chemistry, 2024) and “Effect of Antigen Valency on Autoreactive B-Cell Targeting” (Molecular Pharmaceutics, 2023). Bonger actively engages in the scientific community through teaching courses in molecular physiology, medicinal chemistry, and chemical biology, organizing conferences like the EFMC-ISMC (2025), and delivering invited lectures at international symposia such as the 14th International Activity Based Protein Profiling meeting (2025).