Tess Stepek MSc is a PhD candidate working in the Armstrong group at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry. She started her scientific career at Utrecht University, where she studied Pharmaceutical Sciences. During her bachelor’s internship in the Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery group at Utrecht University, supervised by prof. dr. Geert-Jan Boons and dr. ing. Tom Wennekes, she synthesized an antifreeze glycopeptide using chemical and chemo-enzymatic techniques. In 2022 she started pursuing her master’s degree in Drug Discovery Sciences (Synthesis of Drugs track) at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She completed her major internship in the Medicinal Chemistry group of that university under supervision of prof. dr. Iwan de Esch and dr. Maikel Wijtmans synthesizing and exploring the physicochemical, photochemical, and photopharmacological characteristics of a range of heteroaryl azobenzene ligands for the histamine H3 receptor. Following that, she completed her minor internship in the Synthetic Organic Chemistry and Catalysis group of prof. dr. Eelco Ruijter and dr. Thomas Hansen, where she worked on developing a new and efficient synthesis for the investigational antimalaria drug ganaplacide. In 2026 she started working as a PhD candidate in the group of Dr. Zach Armstrong. She is currently working on the design and synthesis of chemical tools to investigate bacterial mucinases.