This thesis reports on a study that examined the development of L1 teachers’ practical knowledge when they researched and implemented concept-context rich education in an action-research setting.

How can data science be used to discover new medicines? This was the central question of the LCDS meeting on data driven drug discovery on Friday, 10 June 2016.

On 23 juni 2019, Zygimantas Juska defended his thesis 'The Role of Collective Redress Actions to Achieve Full Compensation for Violations of European Union Competition Law'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. T.R Ottervanger.

Media in the Netherlands and abroad reported extensively about the drug research led by Leiden chemist Mario van der Stelt. In this research, Van der Stelt shows which unwanted side-effects a French drug candidate has.

Unconstrained day-to-day activities are difficult to quantify and how the corresponding movements shape the brain remain unclear. Here, we recorded all touchscreen smartphone interactions at a sub-second precision and show that the unconstrained day-to-day behavior captured on the phone reflects in…

Currently, more than 80% of drugs are used in an off-label manner in critically ill neonates.

Research question

Following their application to system biological models, control theory techniques have further potential to aid in the understanding and application of quantitative systems pharmacology models.

Getting personal

The “harpe organisée”, 1720-1840: Rediscovering the lost pedal techniques on harps with a single-action pedal mechanism, is the title of Maria Christina Cleary's PhD thesis. This is the first monographic study on harp pedal techniques, tracing the historical way to pedal on the early pedal harps with…

In the search for new medicines against diseases such as cancer, a Leiden team has developed a new workflow. This approach combines artificial intelligence (AI) with molecular modelling and is suitable for finding unknown and innovative drug structures, the researchers proved.

Leiden chemists have developed a new technique with which they can determine the role of kinases – a group of proteins – in a living cell. This technique makes it easier to find new drug targets for diseases such as cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. The team published the findings in the journal Nature…

Not taking into account the saturation of drug targets can lead to wrong conclusions about the duration of a drug's action. This is what former PhD candidate Wilbert de Witte writes together with the Leiden professors of pharmacology Meindert Danhof, Piet van der Graaf, and Liesbeth de Lange in Nature…

This book describes the different approaches for drug delivery to the brain with an emphasis on the physiology of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and the governing principles and concepts for drug delivery across the BBB

No, this isn’t about a Star Wars Alliance that wants to suppress The Resistance. Rather, the EPIC Alliance brings together scientific experts from seven countries to address the growing threat of antibiotic resistance. Leiden professor Nathaniel Martin is part of the 11-member consortium.

Adenosine is an endogenous ligand which exerts its action by activating adenosine receptors (ARs), while its circulating levels are controlled via a variety of mechanism and proteins, amongst others the equilibrative nucleoside transporters (ENTs).

Therapeutic proteins have revolutionized the treatment of many severe diseases like multiple sclerosis, haemophilia, diabetes and many more. Unfortunately, even recombinant proteins with structures (almost) identical to those of their endogenous counterparts often induce the formation of anti drug antibodies…

Lecture, LIBC Sylvius Lecture

The coronavirus has the world in its grip. Finding a cure has never been more important. Unfortunately, the development of new drugs for treatment of the COVID-19 disease caused by the virus and development of a vaccine are complex, lengthy, and above all costly processes. With the help of computer…

Why doesn't the Surinamese resistance hero and independence fighter Anton de Kom have a memorial site in his former hometown, The Hague, while there are streets named after colonial leaders? The students of university lecturer Anne Marieke Van der Wal-Rémy are committed to the erection of a statue.

Minister Grapperhaus wants to use intelligence services in the investigation of drug crime. There are many doubts about this wish in the intelligence world. Paul Abels, Professor by Special Appointment Governance of Intelligence and Security Services at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA),…

A tantalizing concept that has emerged in our recent research is binding kinetics. An important parameter is residence time (RT), a direct reflection of how long a drug stays bound to its target. This parameter is of crucial importance, because drug action lasts only as long as the receptor-ligand complex…

The research described in this thesis focused on identifying novel drug targets and synergistic combinations for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), a virulent subtype of breast cancer with a dismal prognosis and limited therapeutic options.

Does a drug enter into the human brain once administered in the body?

An integrated approach of physiological concepts, advanced statistical approaches and large clinical datasets.

Leiden chemical biologists led by Dr Mario van der Stelt have developed a method to facilitate the search for new drugs. This method has allowed them to take an important first step in the development of a drug against obesity.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy is a non-destructive analytical technique that is used to study the nature and characteristics of molecules with an atomic level precision. It has a wide range of applications especially in synthetic chemistry, biological and biochemical research groups…

Glucocorticoids (GCs) are widely prescribed as anti-inflammatory drugs due to their well-established immunosuppressive effects.

Microneedle-based vaccination has several advantages over vaccination by using conventional hypodermic needles.

Animal Sciences’ contribution to the Bioactive Molecules research theme includes research on molecules from natural sources, such as plants, insects, and snake venom, with the aim to identify novel anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, and anti-diabetic agents.

Many pharmaceutical companies no longer have their own lab and are working more closely with universities and start-ups of scientists. Professor of Science-Based Business Simcha Jong is researching how scientific ideas result in new drugs, including at the Leiden Bio Science Park (LBSP).

On December 1st, Maria Vasile attended the annual meeting of Wallonia’s Mouvement d’Action Paysanne (MAP) (Peasant Action Movement). The members of the MAP gather on this particular day to celebrate St. Eloi, who is recognized as the saint patron of farmers and of the working class, more generally.…

PhD candidate Dennis Wander searches for the best of both worlds. That is to say: a cancer drug that is effective and also has minimal side effects. To this end, he makes new molecules inspired by two existing medicines. And not without result: ‘We have created a new variant that is very promising.’…

Sugar excipients, needed to stabilize medicines, can be unsafe for patients due to an impurity discovered recently by Daniel Weinbuch. ‘The biopharmaceutical industry should now consider new excipient quality criteria for safer drug development,’ he says. PhD defence on 13 December.

Promotor: M. Danhof, Co-promotores: J. Freijer, A. Yassen

Light can be used to apply forces on single cells. Focused lasers have been used by physicists to tweeze particles and to manipulate them. These so called “optical tweezers” can be used as mechanical phenotyping tools for characterising the mechanics of materials and living objects.

Research conducted at Leiden has established that guts-on-chips respond in the same way to aspirin as real human organs do. This is a sign that these model organs are good predictors of the effect of medical drugs on the human body. Publication in Nature Communications on 15 August.

Drugs-related violence in Mexico is similar in terms of dynamics and strategy to the IS hybrid war in the West. This is the claim made by Teun Voeten. PhD defence 20 September.

Promotores: Prof.dr. J. A. Bouwstra, Prof.dr. W. Jiskoot

Do medicines arrive in the right amount at the right spot in our brain? By making a model that depicts our brain in small 'brain blocks', Esmée Vendel tries to find an answer to this question. Her new, mathematical model predicts the concentration of medicines in the brain over time and space. Vendel…

It takes years to develop new medicines, from the test tube to trials in humans. During the process it often happens that a drug that seems promising in the initial stage has to be dropped in a later phase. This costs time and money. Leiden University and the LUMC are working closely together to make…

In health care, artificial intelligence is quite normal: it is used, for example, as an aid in making diagnoses. However, artificial intelligence is not yet used as much in drug development. A new prestigious partnership is therefore going to investigate how artificial intelligence can contribute to…

These are CCLS events that have already taken place. PDFs of the presentations will be added once they have been received.

From studying molecules in the blood of corona patients to developing a new concept for vaccines. The Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) has transformed many ongoing projects into Covid research projects. Hubertus Irth, scientific director of LACDR, talks about the role of his institute…

Actin and microtubules form cellular cytoskeletal network, which mediates cell shape, motility and proliferation and are key targets for cancer therapy. Changes in cytoskeletal organization correlate with proliferative capacity and invasiveness of cancer cells. These changes expectedly lead to altered…