Najoua El Boujnouni, born on June 6, 1992, in Sidi Kacem, Morocco, grew up in Malta, and relocated to the Netherlands thereafter. She earned her BSc in Medical Biology (minor: Bioorganic Chemistry) from Radboud University (2017), with an internship on cell-penetrating peptides at the Institute for Molecules and Materials. Her MSc in Drug Innovation at Utrecht University (2017–2019) included internships on fused cyclic peptides for protein targeting and mRNA-loaded scaffolds at Radboudumc.

From 2019, she pursued a PhD at the dept. of Biochemistry and Cell Biology (Radboudumc), supervised by Dr. D.G. Wansink and Prof. R.E. Brock. Her research focused on patient-directed antisense therapies for myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1), exploring disease heterogeneity and oligonucleotide delivery. She co-founded the Radboud Muscle Network at Radboudumc and organized the Dutch Antisense Therapeutics Symposium (2023-2024). Since late 2024, she is on a talent track toward an assistant professorship in genetic therapy development for rare diseases (with a focus on education) at Radboudumc, where she aims to continue her work on improving the efficacy and safety of ASO therapeutics while expanding into other neuromuscular diseases.

Expertises: Myotonic dystrophy type 1, antisense oligonucleotides, fluorescence microscopy, nanoparticles

Dissertation: Optimization and personalization of antisense therapy for myotonic dystrophy type 1, 08-12-2025