Worldwide resurgence of pertussis necessitates the need for improvement of pertussis vaccines and vaccination strategies.

PhD Defence

Promotor: Prof.dr. M. Ubbink

Promotor: Prof.dr. J.P. Abrahams

Promotor: M.L. van Hecke

The thesis explores how interstellar chemistry evolves as a function of time and changing physical architectures during the formation of stars.

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.

In this project we study the properties of statistical- and rule-learning mechanisms in relation to the acquisition and evolution of language. We ask to what extent these mechanisms are unique to humans - or to human language - by comparing the acquisition of vocal structure in two species: humans (infants)…

Marc Koper’s research focuses on electrocatalysis and electrochemical surface science for sustainable energy and chemistry. Reactions of interest are the redox reactions of the oxygen/hydrogen cycle (water oxidation, hydrogen evolution), the carbon cycle (reduction of carbon dioxide, oxidation of small…

The Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies in collaboration with the University of Geneva, the Chinese Journal of International Law (ChineseJIL, OUP) and the European Society of International Law (ESIL), are pleased to invite public international scholars and researchers to attend a conference…

Conference

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

Solar energy harnessed by plants and algae has great potential to be converted into biofuels for future generations.

Promotor: G.P. van Wezel, Co-promotor: D. Claessen

A central and much debated topic in the study of language acquisition concerns the nature of the learning mechanisms that are required. Are the computational and learning mechanisms that guide learning about language structure special and specific to language or humans?

My PhD project studies how the temporally sequential Hox gene expression is regulated during head-tail patterning of the frog embryo.

Despite an increased EU role in the preparedness, monitoring and coordination of health emergencies over the past two decades, Member States’ responses to the first wave of COVID-19 were surprisingly uncoordinated. In light of calls to improve cooperation regarding future health emergencies, this article…

The master's specialisation From Cells to Organisms at Leiden University examines the molecular mechanisms underlying health and disease and how cells and organisms adapt to environmental factors.

The dissociative chemisorption of methane on metal surfaces is of fundamental and practical interest, being a rate-limiting step in the steam reforming process. The reaction is best modeled with quantum dynamics calculations, but these are currently not guaranteed to produce accurate results because…

Promotor: G.P. van Wezel

How presence, abundance and enzymatic activities of AM and EM fungi differently affect soil carbon sequestration processes?

Mechanical forces are known to play an important role in bacterial colonies. In this dissertation, we study the self-organization at various stages of growing bacterial colonies, and focus on the mechanical effects of cell growth.

The CMCB comprises research groups from the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL), the Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC) and the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC).

Source: Br. J. Pharmacol., Volume 172, Issue 3, pp. 940-55 (2015)

Exploring the mechanism of targeted nanoparticle-mediated drug delivery using the zebrafish model

PhD Defence

Promotor: P. J. J. Hooykaas Co-promotor: B. S de Pater

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…

We investigate how radiation pressure can be used to influence the mechanical motion of a micro-mirror suspended from springs.

This thesis focuses on the role of chemokine receptors CXCR3 and CCR2 in the inflammatory process and infection control using the zebrafish model.

To argue that people can control the relative contributions of goal-driven and stimulus-driven processes to decision-making and action selection.

The availability of complete plant genome sequences together with the ever increasing amount of data on the molecular, cellular and physiological mechanisms of plant development require mathematical and computational models to obtain a complete overview of and generate new insights into the quantitative…

Source: Biochem Pharmacol, Volume 95, Issue 4, pp. 290-300 (2015)

Promotores: Prof.dr. G.W. Canters, Prof.dr. T.J. Aartsma

Promotor: B. van de Water

Solar energy is used by photosynthetic organisms to drive energy required cellular processes. Is absorbed by two groups of pigments, located in the LHCs.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most prevalent cancer in males.

Using mathematics to unravel biological processes: mathematician Lisanne Rens built a mathematical model to study the mechanisms that drive tissue shaping. Her model bridges different biological scales, from molecules to cells to entire tissues. ‘It’s fascinating how cells, that behave as individual…

Unraveling the immune-suppressive actions of drugs like prednisone.

Promotor: Huub J.M. de Groot, Co-promotor: Francesco Buda

On October 31st, Margarita Gulian succesfully defended her doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Margarita on this great result.

The “harpe organisée”, 1720-1840: Rediscovering the lost pedal techniques on harps with a single-action pedal mechanism, is the title of Maria Christina Cleary's PhD thesis. This is the first monographic study on harp pedal techniques, tracing the historical way to pedal on the early pedal harps with…

I will give a general introduction to the field of molecular electronics, its history, methods and challenges. I will also introduce the subject of my investigation and provide a brief outlook to the remainder of our thesis.

How does FoxP1 affect auditory perception on a behavioural and genomic level?

Plant architecture has distinct forms in different plant species, but also within a species the finalarchitecture of a plant is determined by its gradual development and changes therein induced by environmental conditions during the plant’s life cycle.

Physics and Engineering Approaches to Biomedicine and Pharmacology