PhD Defence

Kidney failure is a serious issue because kidneys cannot regenerate themselves after injury. A possible solution consists of artificially growing healthy kidney tissue. To achieve that, scientists first need to understand kidney development during the earliest stages, in the fetus. Leiden researchers…

The ADAPTED (Alzheimer's Disease Apolipoprotein Pathology for Treatment Elucidation and Development) project is a major new initiative to investigate an area of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) research which has previously received little attention. The project aims to improve understanding of the function…

Supervisor: P.J.J. Hooykaas Co-Supervisor: R. Offringa

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

How can zebrafish research help to understand and fight human cancer?

Pathogenic bacteria are increasingly resistant to today’s antibiotics. Professor Gilles van Wezel seeks new forms of antibiotics in good bacteria that live in the soil.

How do our cells keep DNA stored away? To find out, biochemist Remus Dame received a 3 million euro Science-Groot grant. Leiden University will share the grant with TU Delft, VU Amsterdam and the Hubrecht Institute.

‘It's where disciplines intersect that the most exciting scientific questions arise.' This was the message given by John van Noort, Professor of Biophysics, in his inaugural lecture. His own research is at the interface between biology and physics. Inaugural lecture 23 April.

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

A very large part of intravenously administered nanoparticles are cleared through the liver. Within the liver, most nanoparticles are thought to be sequestered by macrophages (Kupffer cells). To achieve effective cell-specific targeting of drugs and non-viral gene delivery vectors, improved mechanistic…

PhD Defence

PhD Defence

Hybrid zones occur where two species meet and produce offspring (hybrids). Typically, hybrids show a considerable reduction in fitness. In this thesis two hybrid zones are treated.

Drug development is a time- and resource-consuming process that starts with the discovery and validation of a (protein) target that contributes to pathogenesis or disease progression.

What is the role of auxin in the initiation and process of somatic embryogenesis?

What are the functions of autophagy in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger?

Four Leiden researchers will be gaining experience at prominent international research research institutes funded by a Rubicon subsidy from NWO. One international researcher will be coming to Leiden.

The GMP Facility facilitates development and production of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs) and chemical (peptide) synthesis.

Aspergillus niger is an important industrial producer of organic acids and enzymes producing large amounts of spent fungal biomass.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens, a gram-negative plant pathogen belonging to the family Rhizobiaceae, is the causative agent of crown gall disease, which can affect many plant species including agronomically important ones.

The Horizon 2020 project CoSTREAM aims to improve our understanding of the co-occurrence of stroke and Alzheimer’s disease. It has long been known that both diseases share underlying causes, but their exact interaction or link is not fully understood. CoSTREAM combines multiple factors to identify and…

Promotor: G.P. van Wezel

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

Promotor: B. van de Water

Can new variants of daptomycin and the polymyxins be found?

Bacterial biocatalysis constitutes a sustainable alternative for high-value chemicals production by enabling the utilization of renewable feedstocks.

How is Pol θ responsible for T-DNA integration, and how do other DNA double-strand break repair pathways interact with Pol θ? How may we manipulate T-DNA integration to stimulate error-free integration at a predetermined genomic site?

At the division of Biopharmaceutics, we aim to develop and test new therapeutic approaches to limit or even prevent the development of atherosclerosis in order to reduce the number of acute cardiovascular syndromes such as myocardial infarction or stroke.

By carrying out fundamental research and providing excellent education, universities become a breeding ground for innovation and entrepreneurship.

PhD Defence

PhD Defence

PhD Defence

Macrophages and atherosclerotic lesions The infiltration of monocytes in the arterial wall, their differentiation to macrophages, and the subsequent accumulation of cholesterol in these macrophages initiate the process of atherosclerosis. We study the importance of specific genes in macrophages for…

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.

Discovery of metastasis promoting candidate drug targets

The Graduate School of Social and Behavioural Sciences in collaboration with the Department of Methodology and Statistics and researchers in the field of Methodology and/or Statistics of the other Institutes provides training for PhD candidates and other researchers.

Is criminal disenfranchisement compatible with a democratic political order? This article considers this question in light of a recently developed view that criminal disenfranchisement is justified because it expresses our commitment to democratic values.

Vaccines are an extraordinary category of biopharmaceuticals. They are usually prophylactic and come in many types, from whole bacteria to peptides and nucleic acids. They are very cost effective and almost every human on the planet is vaccinated. The latter mandates that vaccines have to be extremely…

Plant researchers have been wrong for years about how plant growth and development are regulated, as Yao Xiao pointed out during his PhD project. They overlooked the role of a protein that turns out to be essential, just as it is in the development of animals and yeasts. In plants, it regulates the…

Various companies in the plant biotech industry will test a recent Leiden discovery in their crops. The ‘Pol Theta’ technology is developed in Leiden and makes it possible to reduce undesired side effects during genome engineering of plants.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common inflammatory skin disorder characterised by various epidermal alterations. Filaggrin (FLG) mutations are a major predisposing factor for AD and much research has been focused on the FLG protein.

A new analysis of the king cobra genome by Michael Richardson, Christian Henkel (IBL) and collaborators at the IBL and Naturalis, Helsinki and Singapore has been published in

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

Cellular stress response pathways are activated upon exposure to chemicals and help organisms deal with various molecular dangers (e.g. oxidative stress). When these pathways become hyper-activated an adverse response takes place and cells die, which may lead to organism-level toxicity such as drug-induced…

The group Theoretical Physics of Life Processes, led by Helmut Schiessel, focuses on the physics of chromatin, the DNA-protein complex that fills the nuclei of eukaryotic cells.

What is my contribution to the world? This is what students and researchers at Leiden University College The Hague (LUC) ask themselves every day. They want to make a difference with their teaching and research in the four global challenges of ‘Peace and Justice,’ ‘Sustainability,’ ‘Diversity’ and ‘…