Maarten Merkx (1970) studied physical organic chemistry and biochemistry at the Radboud University Nijmegen (cum laude). He did his PhD with Prof. Averill (University of Amsterdam) working on metalloenzyme catalysis and subsequently was a Human Frontier of Science Program (HFSP) post-doctoral fellow with Prof. Lippard (MIT). He is currently associate professor in protein engineering at the Department of Biomedical Engineering and core member of the Institute of Complex Molecular Systems. An important research theme is to develop generic engineering concepts for the development of protein-based switches, which include fluorescent sensors for intracellular imaging, photo-switchable proteins for optogenetics, and protein-based sensors for point-of-care antibody diagnostics. He obtained young investigator grants from the HFSP and NWO, and an ERC starting grant in 2011. In 2012 he received the award for the best TU/e teacher at the master level, in 2013 his work on point-of-care antibody detection was awarded an ERC Proof of Concept grant. His group also supports the TU Eindhoven iGEM teams.