Catalysis is of extreme relevance in the production of everyday materials and plays a central role in many aspects of our life.

Gold nanorods are biocompatible nanoparticles that present an excellent two-photon signal that can be used to get high spatial resolution inside living cells. Gold nanorods are photostable and therefore can be followed inside cells for long time, with possible applications as trackers in live cells.

Science, Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC)

This thesis focuses on using liposomes in two different treatment strategies; vaccination (or immunotherapy) and delivery of a small molecule, and in two different disease models; cancer and atherosclerosis.

Advanced fluorescence microscopy techniques have revealed how steroid receptors move inside the nucleus. The results were published by a team from Leiden University and the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, led by IBL-researcher Marcel Schaaf.

Atoms and molecules are the basic units of matter. If we keep dividing a bar of gold or a glass of water into smaller parts, at the end we are left with a single gold atom or a water molecule.

In this thesis the combinatorial use of bioorthogonal labelling and Electron Microscopy (EM)-based imaging techniques is explored to enable observations of specific molecular targets in their ultrastructural context within the cell.

Planets are formed in disks of gas and dust around young stars.

‘Microscopy is by far the least understood, most inefficiently operated, and the most abused of all laboratory instruments,’ reads the quote on the office wall of microscopy unit supporters Joost Willemse en Gerda Lamers. It describes exactly why the two developed the microscopy course for starting…

Microneedles represent promising tools for delivery of drugs to the skin. However, before these microneedles can be used in clinical practice, it is essential to understand the process of skin penetration by these microneedles.

From surface science towards industrial practice using high-pressure scanning tunneling microscopy.

Freshwater is an important resource, but at a great risk of species decline due to habitat loss, pollution and over-exploitation, and invasive alien species.

The deeper understanding of an organism's pathology is important for developing treatments. Over centuries of systematic research, clinical researchers have demonstrated that the more information they acquire about the cellular properties and their organisation in the tissue, the better they can understand…

Promotor: J.P. Abrahams, Co-promotor: T. Grüne

This thesis consists of two main parts. The first part (Chapters 2 and 3) deals with a class of Markov process called Quasi-Skipfree (QSF) processes.

Although Sander Wezenberg just started working in Leiden in March this year, he already managed to win a Vidi grant from NWO. Inspired by nature, Wezenberg wants to bring synthetic molecules to life and teach them to communicate. But who exactly is Wezenberg and what drives him?

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).

Chinese and Leiden scientists came together in Leiden to study the intricacies of modern visual techniques.

Promotor: T. Schmidt, Co-Promotor: B.E. Snaar-Jagalska

The aim of the research presented in this thesis was to develop new methods forchallenging systems in liquid-state NMR using paramagnetic effects generated by thetwo-armed probe CLaNP-5.

Michel Orrit has received an NWO-TTW Open Technology Programme grant. He will use it to image single molecules without the need for fluorescence.

Leiden physicists have developed a way to address how accurately a superconducting single photon detector (SSPD) can be characterized by detector tomography. SSPDs are not fully understood, and tomography is a key element to determine how these devices detect light. A better understanding of these detectors…

We aim to develop A. niger strains that produce more starch degrading enzymes even in the absence of starch.

Can new variants of daptomycin and the polymyxins be found?

A consortium of researchers from the Leiden Institute of Physics (LION), the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL), and the Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC) received a FOM program grant to develop a novel way of studying individual proteins inside a cell using gold nanorods.

For the first time, astronomers have detected the presence of complex organic molecules, the building blocks of life, in a protoplanetary disc surrounding a young star. The discovery reaffirms that the conditions that spawned the Earth and Sun are not unique in the Universe. The results are published…

Detecting molecules with temperature instead of chemical reactions: that’s what scientists from the Leiden Institute of Physics want to do. They are developing a sensor that utilizes special nanoparticles to keep track of certain molecules. In this way, they can for example see how well new drugs do…

The local ordering of atoms at the surface of a metallic particle determines its catalytic activity and selectivity. As energy systems of the future will be based on efficient catalytic conversion of small molecules in closed cycles, we study how structural effects of catalysts can be used to our ad…

Can we make a better vancomycin?

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…

Science, Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC)

The focus throughout this thesis will be on gathering fundamental studies of the detailed structure and composition of the electrode/electrolyte interface effect on the rate and mechanism of key electrocatalytic reactions.

With the powerful electron microscopes at NeCEN we study abnormalities in cells of blood vessels in cardiovascular disease, the interaction between pathogens and hosts in infectious diseases, molecular processes that cause cancer and the interaction between drugs and target proteins. Drug development…

Promotor: Prof.dr. J.P. Abrahams, Prof.dr. M. van Heel

This Thesis shows discoveries in non-linear astrochemical kinetics as well as a deeper analysis of dark clouds chemistry.

Is it possible to diagnose diseases using molecular switches? The new international consortium LogicLab will address this question. Leiden chemist Sylvestre Bonnet and Leiden pharmacologist Thomas Hankemeier are involved in the project. LogicLab will run for four years and will receive over 3.5 million…

Due to the corona crisis, they had to switch to online education halfway during their course: associate professor Marcel Schaaf and PhD candidate Michiel Hooykaas of the Institute of Biology Leiden talk about digital practicals, online lectures and their biggest obstacle: exams.

The CIGR comprises research groups from the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL), the Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC), the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) and the Leiden Institue of Physics (LION).

Molecules are extremely hard to see in visible light, especially without using fluorescence. Leiden physicists have now made their optical technique sensitive enough to image the molecules of their interest in all sizes. Publication in Nanoletters.

Natural product inspired antibiotics to address resistance

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

Can zebrafish larvae be used as a behavioural model for screening natural products as potential neurotropic drugs?

Materials with strongly correlated electrons show some of the most mysterious and exotic phases of quantum matter, such as unconventional superconductivity, quantum criticality and strange metal phase.

Mashaghi lab conducts research at the interface of physics, engineering and biomedicine. We develop and use theoretical and experimental approaches to address basic and applied research problems.