Extending our current arsenal of antibiotics is key to staying ahead in the arms race between humans and resistant bacteria.

Can cyclic peptides provide a new generation of antibiotics?

We showed that constitutive and inducible chemical and morphological defenses against Western flower thrips differ between tomato and chrysanthemum plants.

Promotor: J.M. Memelink

Microbial Sciences' contribution to the Host-Microbe Interactions research theme is to investigate how beneficial or disease-causing microbes associate and interact with their host.

Promotors: Prof.dr. P.J. Punt, Prof.dr. C.A.M.J.J. van den Hondel

Exploring the mechanism of targeted nanoparticle-mediated drug delivery using the zebrafish model

Promotores: Prof.dr. H. S. Overkleeft, Prof.dr. G. A. van der Marel

The cellular recycling system in zebrafish is capable of eating harmful bacteria and thus resist infections such as tuberculosis and salmonellosis. That is written by Leiden biologists from the group of Annemarie Meijer. Stimulating this form of defence could be used in new treatment methods against…

PhD defence

What is the function of the insect serosa?

Promotor: G.A. van der Marel, Co-promotor: J.D.C. Codée

Promotor: Prof.dr. J.A. Bouwstra, Co-promotor: Dr. A. El Ghalbzouri

It is the aim of this project to better understand how the physical properties of lipids influences the structure and overall barrier function of the skin.

Can animal venoms yield novel antimicrobial peptides?

Antimicrobial drugs constitute a fundamental part of modern medicine. The global rise in antimicrobial resistance poses a major threat to global health.

Aim of the proposal is to develop lugdunomycin into a drug candidate able to treat infectious diseases caused by multi-drug resistant pathogens.

Because of their large surface area and immunological competence, mucosal tissues are attractive administration and target sites for vaccination.

New and reemerging infectious diseases call for innovative and efficient control strategies of which fast vaccine design and development represent an important element.

Can the venom of snakes, scorpions and other animals be sources of new antibiotics?

Antibiotic resistance, caused by widespread use of antibiotics, leads to bacterial infections that are difficult, if not impossible, to treat and is a major worldwide health concern.

Promotor: H.P. Spaink, A.H. Meijer Co-promotor: R. Marin-Juez

Promotores: W. Jiskoot, F. Ossendorp

Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease in the world. One of its symptoms is the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta.

The effective treatment of tuberculosis (TB) remains a major challenge to global health.

Can drug screening for tuberculosis treatment be made more efficient?

This project aims to further understand the molecular details related to the biosynthesis and function of Galf containing glycoconjugates in fungal Aspergillus spp.

The CMCB comprises research groups from the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL), the Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC) and the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC).

The goal of hit discovery is to identify suitable chemical starting points to modulate a drug target. A hit can be, a.o., a small molecule, a protein or mRNA. Hit identification is performed via rational design, genome mining, (targeted) library screening, or in silico approaches.

In this research group, led by Dr. Joost Beltman, the aim is to employ mathematical and computational dynamical modelling approaches in order to quantitatively and mechanistically understand the dynamical behaviour and regulation of intracellular networks of genes, proteins and metabolites as well as…

In this project, we aim to develop mathematical models to mechanistically and quantitatively predict the dynamics of cellular stress pathway activation and its relation with toxic effects when cells are exposed to various toxicants.

PhD defence

Science, Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL)

PhD defence

The master's specialisation Molecular, Cellular and Organismal Biology at Leiden University examines the molecular mechanisms underlying health and disease and how cells and organisms adapt to environmental factors.

In this research project, we aimed to obtain more insight in the role of mast cells in the immune driven disorders rheumatoid arthritis and atherosclerosis.

Worldwide resurgence of pertussis necessitates the need for improvement of pertussis vaccines and vaccination strategies.

Can metabolomic profiling be used to predict resistance against insect herbivores in plants?

Plant exudates appeared long time ago in the history line of life in the early Devonian. They are typical saps produced by specialized cells.

Promotor: G.P. van Wezel, Co-promotor: Y.H. Choi

With the powerful electron microscopes at NeCEN we study abnormalities in cells of blood vessels in cardiovascular disease, the interaction between pathogens and hosts in infectious diseases, molecular processes that cause cancer and the interaction between drugs and target proteins. Drug development…

Within the Chinese medicine, more than 80% of the constituents of the preparations are derived from plants. Like any other organism, plants are constantly interacting with their changing and often harsh environment during the various phases of their life cycle.

The outermost layer of the skin, the stratum corneum (SC), is responsible for the skin barrier function, protecting the body from pathogens, chemicals and other unwanted substances from the external environment. The SC lipid matrix provides the only continuous pathway through the SC and is considered…

Plants and soils from natural ecosystems harbor great diversity of soil microorganisms, which could potentially contribute to the sustainability of horticulture. The knowledge about using wild plant species and soil from natural ecosystem to improve the crop health will advance the application of ecological…

National parochialism is the tendency to cooperate more with ingroup than outgroup members. Angelo Romano, Matthias Sutter, James Liu, Toshio Yamagishi & Daniel Balliet studied national parochialism across different nations and conclude in their publication in Nature Communications that it is a ubiquitous…

Actinobacteria are Gram-positive bacteria that have a complex multicellular life cycle and are well known for their ability to produce a wide range of bioactive natural products (NPs).

Antibiotics are a class of medicine most people take for granted. But pathogenic bacteria are becoming more and more resistant to our antibiotics, and this poses a great challenge for future treatments. There is thus a great societal need to identify new molecules that can address new targets and be…

IBL-researcher Phil Elks in the group of Annemarie Meijer won the Cell Observatory Publication of the Year 2013. He received the award for his paper in PLoS Pathogens, showing that activation of hypoxia signaling protects against mycobacterial infection.

Our immune system protects us against disease, but every now and then, something goes wrong: an enemy invades our bodies or our immune system attacks our own cells and we become ill. Doctors and researchers at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) want to be able to manipulate the immune system…