Developing robust and comprehensive analytical methods to size and quantify subvisible particles in biopharmaceutical products.

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.

Promotor: Prof.dr. M. Ubbink

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.

We aim to understand ion homeostasis in the model eukaryote S. cerevisiae.

The Protein Centre can supply you with purified proteins that are essential for many experiments, ranging from in vitro inhibitor screening and enzymatic analysis to manipulation of life cells.

Promotor: W. Jiskoot, Co-promotor: H.A. Every

How can we develop a new microscope that can distinguish individual atoms in proteins?

The RNA guided endonuclease based on the CRISPR/Cas system of Streptococcus pyogenus is a potent new tool for genome engineering in plants.

SMR can be used to measure the mass of adsorbed protein to nanoparticles with a high precision in the presence of free protein.

Promotor: A. Kros

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,…

Promotor: Prof.dr. J. Brouwer, Co-promotor: Dr. Remus Th. Dame

Source: Mediators Inflamm (2014)

Alireza Mashaghi and his research team have created a new framework to understand shapes of proteins and DNA. With this framework, many diseases can be understood better.

Researchers led by Professor of Chemistry Marcellus Ubbink have recently published a study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) about the dynamics of an important redox enzyme. This work was accomplished thanks to an NWO VICI subsidy granted to Professor Ubbink.

Animal models suggest that the chemokine ligand 2/CC-chemokine receptor 2 (CCL2/CCR2) axis plays an important role in the development of inflammatory diseases. However, CCR2 antagonists have failed in clinical trials because of a lack of efficacy.

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether the lipid/protein ratio and the total dry SC mass per surface area are related with the skin barrier function of controls and AE patients.

What are the host immune defence mechanisms that control intracellular infections and how are these subverted by pathogens?

Promotors: W. Jiskoot; G.J. Witkamp, Co-promotor: M.R. Nejadnik

The research is aimed at development of an efficient gene targeting method that allows controlled integration of DNA at a preselected site in the Trichoderma genome.

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

The work done by SUMO proteins in the cells of our body is of vital importance. Molecular cell biologist Alfred Vertegaal has been studying these proteins for nine years, first with a Veni subsidy and then with a prestigious Vidi subsidy.

Promotor: Prof.dr. H.P. Spaink, Co-promotor: Prof.dr. A.H. Meijer

Promotores: S.J. Edixhoven, F. Andreatta

Promotor: J.P. Abrahams, Co-Promotor: N.S. Pannu

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…

Chemist Gerjan de Bruin has designed a method of slowing down the degradation process of proteins in cells. This may contribute to new cancer medicines with fewer side-effects. PhD defence on 1 June.

Supervisor: Natalia Ortiz Zacarías

Researchers at Leiden University led by Mario van der Stelt (Leiden Institute for Chemistry) have set ‘gold standards’ for developing new painkillers based on the medicinal effects of cannabis. Publication in Nature Communications.

The Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) received no less than three awards during the Figon Dutch Medicine Days. Bas Goulooze won the PhD Prize for best PhD candidate, Natalia Ortiz Zacarías and Huub Sijben both received a poster prize. ‘Scientists must be able to communicate their research…

Advanced fluorescence microscopy techniques have revealed how steroid receptors move inside the nucleus. The results were published by a team from Leiden University and the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, led by IBL-researcher Marcel Schaaf.

Conference

Research aims: Identification of key genes involved in programming the cellular architecture of A. niger & Genetic engineering of A. niger in order to improve its secretory capacities and rheological behavior under industrial fermentation conditions.

Promotores: H. Schiessel, G.T. Barkema

Source: J Med Chem, Volume 57, Issue 8, pp. 3213-22 (2014)

This functional genomics project aims at understanding the biology of the underlying mycelium differentiation and autolysis processes in much more detail.

The drug BIA 10-2474 inhibits fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), a lipase that degrades a specific endocannabinoid. On the basis of this activity, BIA 10-2474 was being developed as a potential treatment for anxiety and pain. In a phase 1 trial of the drug, one subject died, and four others suffered…

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

Promotores: Prof.dr. C.A.M.J.J. van den Hondel, Prof.dr. V. Meyer (Technische Universität Berlin)

Alireza Mashaghi from the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) will use state-of-the-art technology to investigate proteins that play a role in muscular dystrophy. His goal is to provide new insights for designing novel therapeutic strategies in the future. To accomplish this, Mashaghi receives…

Supervisor: Lizi Xia

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…

It is estimated that approximately 30% of all proteins require a metal to function. Investigating the relationship between metal-binding and peptide/protein folding allows us to uncover fundamental rules for creating metallo-peptides and proteins, which in turn leads to the creation of new structures,…

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