The facility develops and applies advanced, high-throughput methods for genomic research.

How did toxin genes evolve from harmless physiological genes?

The CIGR brings together a diverse range of unique expertise in genome research rooted in biology, chemistry and physics. Members of the CIGR investigate genome folding and genome transactions. An important aspect is direct as well as long term relevance for medicine.

What are the principles of genome folding and dynamics in bacteria?

Is translocation of nucleases possible via Agrobacterium T4SS and is it efficient enough for mutagenesis?

Increasing the efficiency of gene targeting (GT) as a genome editing tool in plants has been an important goal in plant biotechnology.

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.

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.

Filamentous Actinobacteria, such as Streptomyces, produce a plethora of chemically diverse bioactive metabolites that have found applications across medicine, agriculture and biotechnology.

Can the venom of snakes, scorpions and other animals be sources of new antibiotics?

Streptomyces are filamentous bacteria that produce more than two-thirds of known antibiotics.

Promotor: G.P. van Wezel, Co-promotor: Y.H. Choi

Promotor: P.J.J. Hooykaas, Co-Promotor: E.J. van der Zaal

Leiden evolutionary biologist Maurijn van der Zee has co-operated on an enormous international project to describe the genetic material of the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum. The more than 100 authors involved in the project have published their findings in the online magazine PLoS Biology.

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

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).

Leiden researcher Dr Ben Zonneveld has determined the size of the genome - the amount of DNA per nucleus - of wild tulips. His conclusion is that there are more than 87 wild species. Various possibly new species have been discovered.

‘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.

An international team from the Netherlands, France, Norway and Austria demonstrate how new sequencing technologies can be used to efficiently generate the genome, DNA, sequence of an endangered animal, the European Eel.

On March 21 2018, a study was published in Nature, co-authored by Professor M. Soressi from the Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University, announcing the sequencing of five new Neandertals, raising the number of high-coverage sequenced Neandertals from two to seven. A tooth lost by a Neandertal woman…

Climate change is a challenge for both current and future generations. New biological resources have to be developed in order to meet the demand for energy as well as the demand for food.

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

Freek Vonk and Mike Richardson, with many collaborators, have published two snake genomes in two parallel articles in the prestigious journal PNAS. Their new findings provide insight into the co-evolutionary arms race between predator and prey.

Mapping of bacterial genomes to combat infectious diseases

The 1st CIGR meeting was held on March 30, 2021, with talks by representatives of all participating groups.

The guardian of our genome, the protein MutS, scans the DNA for spelling errors and makes sure they are corrected. An essential process for our health. Researchers at Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) have discovered precisely how this protein works by making MutS visible with cryo-electron microscopy.…

On 29 June the startup company Future Genomics Technologies will be launched. Its aim is to make DNA technology and research available for businesses faster. Future Genomics Technologies is a collaboration between DNA research laboratory BaseClear and Leiden University.

Promotor: M. Ubbink, Co-Promotor: R. T. Dame

This month, a paper was published in Nanoscale by scientists from Dr. Alireza Mashaghi group at the Systems Biomedicine and Pharmacology Division in collaboration with the group of Dr. Sander Tans from TU Delft/AMOLF. In this paper, the authors studied how nanoscale spatial confinement affects the fold…

What are the phylogenetic relationships among the members of speciation bursts?

Do understudied animals contain hidden species?

How do balanced lethal systems originate and persist in nature?

Inaugural lecture

Inaugural lecture

This thesis focuses on two processes involved in fighting infections: metabolism and immune cell motility and navigation.

Throughout all domains of life, from bacteria and archaea to eukaryotes, genomes adopt well-organized three-dimensional structures that can change in space and time to accommodate preferred transcriptional programs for environmental adaptation, the maintenance of cellular identity and differentiation…

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?

Lecture, Van Leeuwenhoek Lecture on BioScience

The CIGR brings together a diverse range of unique expertise in genome research rooted in biology, chemistry and physics. Members of the CIGR investigate genome folding and genome transactions. An important aspect is direct as well as long term relevance for medicine. The available expertise extends…

The genomic DNA of every organism is organized and compacted in order to fit inside the cell. This is achieved by the joint action of numerous architectural proteins that aid in folding the genome. Genome folding is tightly interconnected with transcription, with genes in certain regions being silenced,…