Ingrid Dijkgraaf studied Molecular Sciences with specialization in Organic Chemistry at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Subsequently, she was a junior investigator at both the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Utrecht University and the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the Radboud University Medical Centre. After obtaining her PhD degree, she was a postdoctoral fellow from 2006 till 2009 at the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. After a subsequent postdoctoral position at the Radboud University Medical Centre, she started in 2011 at the Department of Biochemistry of Maastricht University where she is currently working as a full professor in biomimetic chemistry. In 2014 she was a Fulbright Scholar at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, USA. Her research focusses on the design and synthesis of peptides and proteins that can be used for molecular imaging, drug development, and studying molecular mechanisms in the field of cardiovascular diseases and oncology. Therefore, structure-activity relationship studies of polypeptides are performed. For her research, she peeks at Nature, especially at hematophagous parasites, as they express a vast variety of anticoagulant, anti-inflammatory, immuno-modulatory, and vasodilating proteins that evade or counteract host defence mechanisms. These organisms represent major sources of lead compounds for development of pharmacological tools and potentially useful therapeutic agents. Since spring 2025, Dijkgraaf serves as chair of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Biology (MCCB) of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society (KNCV).