Promotores: J.N. Kok, H.J. Hoogeboom

Identification and characterization of components of DNA repair pathways and their role in Agrobacterium T-DNA integration and repair of CRISPR/Cas induced DSBs.

Promotor: D. Bouwmeester, Co-promotor: D. Kraft

The type-IV secretion system (T4SS) is a machinery able to transfer DNA and proteins between bacteria and in certain cases also to eukaryotic cells.

Our DNA molecules are packaged by proteins in compact structures. The aim of this project is to understand how modern gene editing techniques nevertheless get access to their target in the DNA.

Promotor: R.D. Gill, F. Taroni

Promotor: H.S. Overkleeft, Co-promotor: B.I. Florea

The genetic information of all living organisms is contained in their DNA. Cells modify the degree of DNA compaction by epigenetics, which largely determines what genes are read out and which genes are transcriptionally silent.

What are the values that Leiden University cherishes? What does the University stand for and what does it consider important?

Promotor: P. J. J. Hooykaas Co-promotor: B. S de Pater

Less than 1 in 10 drug candidates that enter phase 1 clinical trials actually gets approved for human use.

What is the most effective way to eliminate tumour cells? The DNA repair mechanism could play an important role in increasing the effectiveness of chemotherapy in the fight against cancerous cells. If we are to influence this mechanism, we need fundamental knowledge about how the mechanism works.

Leiden University has been an international university from its founding in 1575.

All life on earth contains DNA, which is used to store biological information. Organisms compact their DNA in order for it to fit inside their cell(s).

Inactivating mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes predispose to several types of cancer.

Bacteria often experience external challenges, such as changes in environmental conditions or attacks by bacteriophages.

Students are educated to become academic professionals and responsible and engaged citizens who are internationally and interculturally competent

How do forensic scientists deal with complex DNA-evidence found at crime scenes? Giulia Cereda developed new statistical models to analyse them. PhD defense 12 January.

Promotor: H.S. Overkleeft, Co-promotor: M. van der Stelt

To this day, all cyclophellitol-based inhibitors and ABPs have been close analogues of their natural substrate counterparts. As a result, these probes showed high selectivity towards their target glycosidases.

In the last decades, activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) has emerged as a powerful chemical tool that may aid the ever-challenging drug discovery process.

The close interaction between organic chemi stry and biology goes back to the late 18th century, when the modern natural sciences began to take shape. After synthetic organic chemistry arose as a discipline, organic chemists almost immediately began to pursue the synthesis of naturally occurring compounds,…

The reintegration of high profile ex-offenders frequently receives great political and public attention. While this attention, more often than not in the form of negative sentiments, may be understandable from a moral perspective, it raises several important questions: how do such offenders reintegrate…

Glycosidases are important enzymes in the turnover of polysaccharides and glycoconjugates, and are involved in a range of human pathologies including genetic disorders such as Gaucher and Pompe disease, but also in various cancers.

DNA carries various forms of information. Out of these forms of information the most well-known is classical genetic information.

Leiden physicist Maarten Kruithof has discovered how our DNA is infallibly able to fold itself and to unfold again. In his dissertation he demonstrates how DNA is folded in a single long, very flexible spiral.

Single-celled organisms have stiffer DNA than multicellular lifeforms like humans and rice. Theoretical physicists managed to simulate the folding in full genomes for the first time to reach this conclusion. Publication in Biophysical Journal on February 7.

Supervisor: Anna Vlachodimou

This project aims to assess the risk of spread of antimicrobial resistance genes in the environment derived from currently used synthetic biology approaches in the field of drug discovery.

Politically speaking, the Frisian coastal area constitutes a special case in late medieval Europe since it was not subject to an overlord as it withstood feudalization in the 13th century. Its many sub regions, which were dominated by elites of small noblemen and freeholders, long time succeeded in…

Due to the fact that the Frisian lands lacked major political centers in the Middle Ages and also because most of its monasteries suffered complete destruction in the second half of the 16th century, relatively few written documents concerning medieval Frisian history have survived. To analyze them…

Promotor: Prof.dr. T. Hankemeier, Co-Promotor: R.J. Vreeken

Theoretical physicist Helmut Schiessel receives an NWO Projectruimte grant of 390,000 euro. He will use this budget to hire a postdoc and a PhD student to continue his research on flexibility of double stranded DNA.

In an Advance Online Publication biophysicist John van Noort and others show using magnetic tweezers that DNA is folded in compliant helices of chromatin. This allows enzymes access to the DNA needed for gene expression. Van Noort's research group made the discovery in close partnership with researchers…

Promotores: H.S. Overkleeft, G.A. van der Marel, Co-promotor: B.I. Florea

The key question addressed in this family study is whether the psychophysiological and neurocognitive abnormalities often reported in SAD patients are heritable and can thus be found in family members of SAD patients as well. Determination of heritability of these deficiencies is essential for endophenotyping.…

Supervisor: Maarten Doornbos

Schneider

Activity-based protein profiling (ABPP, also termed chemical proteomics), is one of the pillars of chemical biology, and at LED3 we have taken it to the next level. ABPP allows the assessment of protein function in live cells and tissues, which means that the activity of a complete protein family can…

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

The four possible segments A, T, C and G that link together to form DNA molecules, and with their ordering encode genetic information, are not only different in name, but also in their physical and chemical properties.

Dutch researchers have developed a new tool to label DNA for studying chromosomes in live cells. The tool is non-invasive and can be applied in culture but also in living organisms, such as zebrafish embryos. The team published their findings in the journal Nucleic Acids Research.

Since my master's thesis on the landed property of the Frisian monasteries in the Middle Ages I am highly interested in the do ut des-aspects of the relation between religious houses and the lay world. Key words here are: property, power, patronage and the role of religious institutions in the 'salvation…

Abdessamad El Amraoui defended his thesis on 6 Mai 2015.

Researching DNA material for genetic disorders using the most powerful apparatus. This is what GenomeScan, a company on the Leiden Bio Science Park, does. Master's student Konstantina Konstantinopoulou is doing an internship there. 'It's a world where developments happen really rapidly so it's a fantastic…

How are digital risk-profiles developed and used in practice?

The main purpose of DNAmarkerpoint is to better understand the ecology, evolution and biodiversity through the study of ancient- and modern DNA.

Activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) is a functional proteomics technique for directly monitoring the expression of active enzymes in cell extracts and living cells. The technique relies on irreversible inhibitors equipped with reactive groups (warheads) that covalently attach to the active site…

Why do opposites attract? According to Karin van der Tuin, researcher at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), it could be because of your DNA. The more you differ from one another, the better. She will be testing her ideas at the Lowlands festival Lowlands, where she will subject visitors to DNA…