Gerard van Westen and his group, together with pharmaceutical company Galapagos, start on developing software that invents new effective molecules. They will receive an NWO LIFT grant of 280,000 euros, of which 63,000 euros will come from Galapagos. The company will also bring its expertise in biology,…

It is a stormy Sunday afternoon, with gusts of a whopping 110 kilometres per hour. Chemist Teun Sweere defies the enormous headwind on his city bike and wins the NK Headwind cycling after 22,5 minutes. A new highlight follows six months later: his PhD defence (14 June).

Can a new proteomics workflow be developed to link genes and gene clusters to bioactive molecules, identify novel compounds and enhance the production in the Streptomyces lividans enzyme?

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.

Lecture

Lecture

Seven talented female scientists join the fight against cancer of the Oncode Insitute. Laura Heitman of the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research is one of the new Junior Investigators. ‘I hope to discover new druggable targets’.

Inaugural Lecture

Conference

As of April 1, 2018, Erik Danen has been appointed as Professor of Cancer drug target discovery at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR). His discipline is cell biology of cancer, in which he focuses on the mechanisms underlying metastasis and therapy resistance.

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…

Lecture

Lecture

Brand-new professor Gerard van Westen works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and drug development. For the new chair in Artificial Intelligence and Medicinal Chemistry, he uses computer models to make drug development more efficient. Our ultimate goal is a virtual human which allows you…

PhD Defence

Lecture

PhD Defence

Lecture

PhD Defence

Lecture, Van Leeuwenhoek Lecture on BioScience

Conference

The Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) is a centre of excellence for multidisciplinary research on drug discovery and development.

Drug development is a complex process in which many parties work together. Every day, the researchers at LACDR devote their energies to developing drugs that are new, better, more efficient and easier to produce. And thus to the millions of patients who know all too well why this research in Leiden…

In this research group, headed by Bob Van de Water, cell signaling programs that underlie adverse drug reactions as well as cancer development and progression are unraveled. Adverse drug reactions involve cell injury in critical target organ cells which leads to the activation of cellular stress response…

High-throughput holistic preclinical screens are increasingly used in drug discovery, to assess both drug efficacy and drug safety.

Division contact information & address

Promotor: A.P. IJzerman Co-promotor: L.H. Heitman

Science, Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR)

Discovery and development of Central Nervous System (CNS) drugs is hampered by high attrition rates.

Can we develop a generic method for Quan/Qual analysis of small molecule drugs, their metabolites and endogenous metabolites in (pre-)clinical samples?

Potential drugs that seem promising in the lab, but don’t show any activity in a person: they cost the industry an incredible amount of time and money. That’s why Indira Nederpelt focuses on a more efficient search for new drugs in her PhD, by determining the kinetics of a potential drug earlier on…

Promotores: A.P. IJzerman, H.W.T. van Vlijmen

There are many complex links in the chain that provides patients with new drugs: from fundamental science, to clinical tests, to production. The entire chain can be found in Leiden. The University, the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and the businesses at the Leiden Bio Science Park (LBSP) work…

Faster development of efficacious medicines; that is the goal of molecular pharmacologist Maarten Doornbos of the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research. He wants to find out which mechanisms influence the binding of drugs to a promising drug target in the body. That way, it will become easier to…

Promotor: Prof.dr. A. P. IJzerman, Co-Promotor: Dr. L.H. Heitman

The division of Drug Discovery and Safety combines the former divisions Toxicology and Medicinal Chemistry.

During her bachelor’s research project, Linde Schoenmaker was committed to making the search for suitable cancer drugs more efficient. She didn't do this in the lab, but with the computer. ‘This method is relatively inexpensive and suitable for selecting the right tools that scientists can further test…

Science, Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR)

Promotor: Prof.dr. A.P. IJzerman, Co-Promotor: Dr. L.H. Heitman

The zebrafish is a promising vertebrate model organism in early drug discovery and development.

Drug Discovery and Safety consists of 120 European Credit Transfer System (EC) points.

Our Division has created and maintains the Visualisation Core Facilities of the LACDR. This is a multi-user facility offering basic and advanced microscopic techniques to scientists of the LACDR.

Promotor: A.P. IJzerman

Traditional drug discovery approaches have been hampered by (in vitro) cell-culture models that poorly represent the situation in the human body.

The research conducted at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research is clustered within the divisions of BioTherapeutics, Drug Discovery & Safety and Systems Biomedicine and Pharmacology.

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

Do you have questions about the Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences master’s programme or the specialisation Drug Discovery and Safety? Please contact us.

Key publications of the Computational Drug Discovery group

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

The Drug Discovery and Safety specialisation consists of compulsory and optional components.