Research groups in the Biological & Soft Matter Programme unravel mechanisms in biological processes and develop novel bio-inspired soft materials.

Promotor: Prof.dr. G.P. van Wezel

BlaC is the β-lactamase of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We show that it can recover from inhibition by clavulanic acid and that phosphate helps it do so.

Dr. in Biomedical NMR spectroscopy, LUMC, Leiden - The Netherlands

A new NMR microscope gives researchers an improved instrument to study fundamental physical processes. It also offers new possibilities for medical science, for example to better study proteins in Alzheimer patients’ brains. Publication in Physical Review Applied.

Dr. at Max Planck Institute for chemical Ecology, Jena - Germany

A difficulty of studies on chemical kinetics are the reaction time scales and detection of their intermediates.

The studies presented in the work show the potential of the integrative use of biophysical data in defining the structural basis of protein interactions.

Anthe Janssen graduated ‘summa cum laude’ for the master’s programme Chemistry.He used NMR methods to gain insight in the syntheses and behavior of bio sugars. With this knowledge future therapeutics and research tools in hemical and medicinal biology can be developed. Anthe was awarded € 2.500.

Two things are needed to produce fuel from sunlight: an antenna that harvests light, and a light-driven catalyst. The most efficient antennae contain bacteria. An international team headed by Huub de Groot imitated them and discovered how they function.

Research at the BPOC/SSNMR group is comprised of the following research themes:

Contact Biophysical Organic Chemistry/Solid State NMR

Plants, algae and cyanobacteria have the amazing capacity to perform delicate photophysical and photochemical processes of light capture, excitation transfer, charge separation and catalysis in fluctuating living environments. As a consequence, photosynthetic proteins and membranes form dynamic architectures.…

Dr Bela Bode receives a Feodor Lynen research fellowship for postdoctoral researchers by the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation for development of new methods for signal enhancement in solid state NMR. He aims to create a specific analytical tool for surface studies and research on membranes and membrane…

PhD at Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens - France

How do you fit two meters of DNA in a tiny compartment and at the same time are able to access the right parts of it at the right times?

Master projects are available in

Chemical biology research at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry is aimed at understanding biological processes at the molecular level to strengthen the knowledge base of human health and disease. The approach to achieve this goal is a fundamental chemical one; with the aid of chemical probes biological…

The challenge of achieving fast quantification in metabolomics is the presence of severe matrix effects during the MS analysis of complex samples.

Can metabolomic profiling be used to predict resistance against insect herbivores in plants?

Photosynthesis is the origin of life on earth, but it is a phenomenon that is still barely understood. Take, for example, the extremely efficient mechanism of electron transport. Leiden researchers demonstrate for the first time where one particular cause of this might be found.

A full overview of BPOC/SSNMR PhD theses.

This thesis focuses on amyloid proteins, a class of proteins that convert into amyloid fibrils.

Promotor: P.G.L. Klinkhamer, Co-Promotores: K. Vrieling, P.P.J. Mulder

Associate professor at the Natural Products Laboratory, Institute of Biology, Leiden University - the Netherlands

Zebrafish is an excellent model organism for studying various human diseases. Due to opaqueness of the adult phase, in vivo studies are restricted to early embryonic stages. This raises the need for rapid sensitive and non-invasive in vivo imaging methods to follow developmental processes, not only…

The long term goal of the Biophysical Organic Chemistry/SSNMR group, headed by Prof. Huub de Groot, is to reach an understanding of structure, dynamics and functional mechanisms of membrane proteins and self-organized biological assemblies and to translate this knowledge into new concepts for nano-devices,…

Biophysicist Anjali Pandit has been awarded a FOM 'Projectruimte' research grant for her proposal ‘Tuning into the photosynthetic membrane with atomistic precision’.

A deceptively simple, complicated paper

X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Cryo-electron microscopy (Cryo-EM) are the three main methods for solving structures of macromolecules.

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…

We invite you to develop your academic skills by joining our research group and develop your own short term project in the bachelor phase. We offer longer term research projects for master students. 

PhD Defence

Promotor: H.J.M. de Groot

Develop EPR instrumentation and methodology to investigate intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs).

Professor at the School of pharmaceutical sciences, University of Geneva - Switzerland

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 CMCB brings together a diverse range of unique expertise in microbial cell biology. Members of the CMCB investigate both model and non-model organisms, bacteria and archaea, pathogens and non-pathogens.

PhD at the Natural Product Laboratory, Institute of Biology, Leiden University - the Netherlands

Which metabolites of sponge are influenced by individual environmental or biological factors?

How does the photoregulation mechanism work in detail?

PhD Defence

This thesis is concerned with the constitution of chiral responsive matrix assemblies that may undergo light-driven conformational changes and self-select vibrations to develop vibronic states for driving semi-classical coherent transfer with nearly 100% yield in a lossless NCAP process.

Metabolomics group, LCQUI, Universidade UENF, Campos dos Goytacazes/Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

Can new variants of daptomycin and the polymyxins be found?

We focus on natural products research, traditional medicine, ethnobotany and phytochemistry.

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