Laurynn Torfs
Laurynn Torfs obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Hasselt University in 2022. She then pursued a Master’s degree in Chemistry at KU Leuven, graduating in 2024. During her first year of Master’s studies, she interned at Worg Pharmaceuticals in Basel, Switzerland, where she focused on the in vitro generation of human Graves’ disease-specific Th1 and Tr1 T-cells. In her second year, she joined the Verwilst Lab team for her thesis, working on the design and synthesis of novel small molecules aimed at developing potential antiviral drugs that act as NNRTIs, targeting the HIV reverse transcriptase enzyme.
Laurynn’s PhD research focuses on developing novel small molecule antibiotics to explore the impact of inhibiting the purine biosynthesis pathway as potential antivirulence therapeutics. Her work targets two clinically significant bacterial species, E. coli and S. aureus, by inhibiting the PurK enzyme involved in their nucleotide biosynthesis.
Co-promotor Prof. Vitor Pinheiro (KUL).