dr. WJC (Wouter) de Bruijn

Wouter J.C. de Bruijn completed his BSc and MSc degrees in food technology with honours at Wageningen University & Research (WUR). In 2019, he obtained his doctorate at the Laboratory of Food Chemistry at WUR with a PhD thesis entitled “Legume and cereal defence metabolites as lead compounds for novel antimicrobials – Production, analysis, and structural modification”. After a brief postdoc, he was appointed as assistant professor in 2020 and since then he has led the Phytochemicals research group at the Laboratory of Food Chemistry at WUR.

Wouter’s main research areas of my interest are analytical food chemistry and the reactivity of small molecules from plants. His current research is focussed on: (i) analysis and structure elucidation of small molecules using a combination of liquid chromatography (LC), mass spectrometry (MS), and ion mobility spectrometry (IMS); (ii) oxidation reactions of phenolic compounds during processing and storage of plant-based foods and ingredients; and (iii) the covalent and non-covalent interactions of phytochemicals with other food molecules, such as proteins. With his research, he aims to gain insights into the presence and properties of phytochemicals in plant-derived raw materials, ingredients, and food products. He believes that a better understanding of the structures and reactions of phytochemicals will allow us to control the behaviour of these compounds and exploit their functionalities to improve the quality of plant-based foods and ingredients.

To read more about the work of the Phytochemicals research group at the Laboratory of Food Chemistry, go to https://www.wur.nl/en/chair-groups/food-sciences-and-technology/food-chemistry/research/phytochemicals.