Daan was born in 1996 in Groningen. He obtained both his bachelor’s and master’s degree cum laude from the University of Groningen. During his master’s he worked on the total synthesis of Dissectol A and Serratumin A under supervision of prof. Adri Minnaard, for which he was awarded the Unilever Research Prize 2019. He then did an internship in the group of prof. Johan Winne at Ghent University, where he worked on novel cycloaddition strategies for the synthesis of natural products. In 2020 he received a PhD scholarship from the University of Groningen to work on an interdisciplinary project in the groups of prof. Adri Minnaard and dr. Sahar El Aidy, combining natural product synthesis with human gut microbiome research.