Promotor: A. Kros

This thesis describes the design, characterization and application of dextran based crosslinked network.

PhD Defence

The current resurgence of whooping cough is alarming, and improved pertussis vaccines are thought to offer a solution. Outer membrane vesicle vaccines (omvPV) are potential vaccine candidates, but omvPV-induced humoral responses have not yet been characterized in detail.

In this Thesis, novel charge induction mechanisms of ionic liquids are treated, tested and experimented on complex oxides, in particular cuprates.

Who tried to influence the mission and position of the Dutch security services between 1912 and 1992, what effect did that have on the form and contents of the security services? How to account for transformations of the security services?

Which genes are involved in woodiness and associated traits such as drought stress resistance, flowering time, stem elongation, life span, and plant herbivory, and how do these QTLs overlap?

Promotores: Prof.dr. G.F.A Kersten, Prof dr. J.A. Bouwstra

This thesis describes the genetic and prokaryotic diversity of giant barrel sponges.

PURPOSE: To determine the effect of elasticity on the skin permeation of ketoprofen from surfactant-based vesicular formulations and elastic liposomes.

Up above the world so high a giant star twinkles. Could an 83-year-old astronomer unravel the mystery of this megastar? ‘At times I thought: that’s it! I give up! It’s beyond me.’

Dwarf satellite galaxies in the Milky Way perform different dances than researchers initially expected. Marius Cautun from Durham University received a Marie Curie grant to unravel the mysteries of this orbital dance. October 1st 2018 he will start his research at the Leiden Observatory.

Galaxies are often found in clusters, which contain many “red and dead” members that stopped forming stars in the distant past. Now, an international team of astronomers, led by Andra Stroe of Leiden Observatory and David Sobral of Leiden and the University of Lisbon, has discovered that these comatose…

Researchers from Japan and the Netherlands who were previously involved in the discovery of an exoplanet with huge rings have now calculated that the giant rings may persist more than 100,000 years, as long as the rings orbit in the opposite direction to that of the planet around the star. Their findings…

Meticulous analysis of hundreds of photographic plates from the star J1407 between 1890 and 2007 show no stellar eclipses. Robin Mentel, a master student at Leiden University, could not detect eclipses of the star J1407 by a planet hypothesized to have giant rings, called J1407b. However, an eclipse…

The largest galaxies in the Universe feed off cosmic oceans, which helps them grow. This is the presumption of an international team of scientist with two Leiden astronomers, based on observations of the ‘Spiderweb’ galaxy. The researchers published their evidence in Science on 2 December 2016.

Recently, archeologists of Leiden University made an excavation in Oegstgeest, where they found a unique silver bowl from the first half of the seventh century as well as imported pottery and winebarrels. Thijs Porck, lecturer in Old English language and culture at Leiden University, places the Oegstgeest…

PhD Defence

Lecture, Public event

PhD Defence

Leiden scientists will be working on the development of a camera for the European Extremely Large Telescope that is currently under construction. On 28 September the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy signed an agreement with the European Southern Observatory.

Membrane proteins and membrane interactions of proteins are studied by spin label EPR. Intact, native membranes, vesicles of all sizes and nano-disks can be investigated, because the size of the object does not matter in EPR. Whereas solution NMR is limited to micelles (a few nm in diameter), by EPR…

Lecture

PhD Defence

PhD Defence

The thesis describes the use of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, in continuous wave and pulse modes, to address the interaction of α-Synuclein (αS) with membranes and the aggregation of αS.

Promotor: J.G.E.M.Fraaije, Co-promotor: A. Kros

Promotor: I. A. G. Snellen, Co-promotor: M. A. Kenworthy

The group of Dr. Roxanne Kieltyka designs and synthesizes molecules that self-assemble into polymeric materials using specific non-covalent interactions. These substrates can be used for numerous applications in medicine ranging from disease detection to cell delivery depending on the (bio)molecular…

This thesis addresses the chemical processes that determine the compositions of giant planet atmospheres.

Promotor: A. Kros, Co-promotor: R.R.C.L. Olsthoorn

A selection of recent publications from the Plant BioDynamics Laboratory.

Control of infectious diseases poses continuous challenges for human health.

A new research line is the development of liquid biopsy fingerprints to predict early Alzheimer’s disease (AD) stage in human in readily accessible body fluids in human (in collaboration with: Dr. Geert-Jan Groeneveld, CHDR; Prof. Elga de Vries, Free University Medical Center; and others).

Multicellular giant algae Chara species have been widely used in physiological studies for decades.

Promotor: J.G.E.M. Fraaije, Co-Promotor: A. Kros

Promotor: Prof.dr. J. den Hertog

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…

‘Can he do it?’ Since the remarkable victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2015 Nigerian presidential elections, this has arguably been the most frequently posed question in Nigerian politics.

How has early development in R. ocellatus been modified as a result of its parasitic embryonic lifestyle?

Dividing Worlds: Tsunamis, Seawalls, and Ontological Politics in Northeast Japan

Within the research area Intelligence and security, intelligence is studied from a political, historical, ethical, judicial, and methodological perspective. The main goal is to improve our understanding of how intelligence and security services operate, how they are and have been embedded in their broader…

Bead microrheology: Analysis of active and passive transport in living cells

The cellular recycling system in zebrafish is capable of eating harmful bacteria and thus resist infections such as tuberculosis and salmonellosis. That is written by Leiden biologists from the group of Annemarie Meijer. Stimulating this form of defence could be used in new treatment methods against…

Promotor: G.F.A. Kersten, W. Jiskoot, Co-promotor: B. Metz

Living cells on topographically-controlled substrates: Understanding Cell Motility in a Quasi-3D Environment

Promotores: Prof.dr. E.F. van Dishoeck, Prof.dr. C.P. Dullemond

Α-synuclein, a protein associated with Parkinson’s disease, proves to bind with membranes in a surprisingly efficient way. It confirms scientists’ suspicion of the protein’s leading role in the transmission of neurotransmitters between nerve cells in the brain. Publication in PLoS ONE.

This thesis examines the link between simple molecules and the underlying structure and chemistry within protoplanetary disks - the birthplaces of planets.

Standing on the shoulders of giants, that's what the students and staff of the of the Institute of Psychology do. Congratulations.