Universiteit Leiden

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Ten years of Life Science and Technology

On September 9th 2009, the study Life Science and Technology (LS&T) celebrates its 10th anniversary. In 1999, a group of enthusiastic pioneers within the Technical University Delft (TUD) and Leiden University (LU) founded a novel study based on the biotechnological expertise of research institutes within 2 universities, which was exceptional at that time.

LS&T could be founded due to the existing collaborations between the research groups within the Biotechnology (BT) department of the TUD, the Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC, LU) and the former Leiden Institute of Plant Molecular Biology (IMP, LU), and with enthousiastic support from the industry. The collaboration between the two universities allowed our LS&T students to become in close contact with both applied and fundamental aspects of life sciences and technology.

Team of advisors and coordinators

Since the start a rather small team coordinates our study and advises our students and teachers. Colleagues from BT, LIC and several institutes located both in Delft and Leiden are training and teaching our students (bio)chemistry, biotechnology, genetics, physics, mathematics, (bio)medical, (bio)pharmaceutical and (bio)ethical aspects in a comprehensive study.

The living cell

The central object of study within LS&T is the living cell: the key element in micro-organisms, plants, animals and humans. A living cell is the ingenious entity able to facilitate and to regulate molecular processes. The last years have shown an enormous progress in the understanding of cellular processes. Many genomes, ranging from microorganisms to man, have been determined. The structure of a huge panel of cellular systems has been unraveled. Signaling pathways and their dynamics are under study and provide novel insights.

Fundamental aspects

Within LS&T, our students study the fundamental aspects of living processes in a coherent program. Insight and knowledge of the various cellular mechanisms allows one to research and understand e.g. the development of life threatening diseases. On the other hand, LS&T students study how to apply this knowledge to optimize cellular systems to produce valuable biologicals for agricultural, biofuel, construction, food, pharmaceutical and medical purposes.

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