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

New funding allows IBL-researcher Herman Spaink to purchase a measurement device for more studies on human diseases such as cancer and tuberculosis using zebrafish as the model system.

Promotor: Prof.dr. J.N. Kok

On Monday 21 September Annemarie Meijer, Professor of Immunobiology, presented her inaugural lecture on immunobiology and infectious disease.

PhD defence

On Wednesday the 4th of September, Queen Máxima opened the renovated tropical greenhouse complex of the Leiden Hortus Botanicus. At the occasion Máxima met with IBL-PhD student Mahin Ghorbani from Iran and talked with her about her work on drug discovery from Iranian medicinal plants using zebrafish…

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

Can chemical safety assessment be improved with zebrafish embryo-based reporter assays?

We perform multidisciplinary research at molecular, cellular, and organismal levels of animal biology to increase fundamental understanding of health and disease.

We aim to keep experiments on animal to a minimum. We therefore assess every study whether full account has been taken to implement the 3 Rs: replace, reduce, refine. The Animal Welfare Body advises researchers on this. By training our staff and provide further courses, we are able to continuously…

In the last decades, activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) has emerged as a powerful chemical tool that may aid the ever-challenging drug discovery process.

We use zebrafish as a model organism to study human development and disease as well as animal welfare and environmental impact.

Key publications of the Systems Pharmacology group

Ewa Snaar-Jagalska, Shuning He and colleagues from IBL, LION and LACDR reported on a new zebrafish study to understand micrometastasis of human cancer cells. They discovered a novel role for neutrophils in assisting metastasis formation, which provides critical insights for anti-cancer therapies.

What is the best method and time to test the effectiveness of medicines? PhD student Rob van Wijk of the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) discovered zebrafish larvae are best used in drug research when they are five days old. His findings were published on 15 February in the journal…

New drugs for use as tuberculosis (TB) treatment are needed due to the constrains of classical antibiotics against TB and the rise of antibiotic-resistant strains, making TB a harder and harder disease to treat.

About nine million people worldwide contract tuberculosis each year. Research into new treatment for this disease has received fresh stimulus with more efficient techniques and a new understanding of how the tuberculosis bacteria works.

In the theme Animal sciences and health research, we work with different species of animals to learn more about fundamental biological processes.

The effective treatment of tuberculosis (TB) remains a major challenge to global health.

The opportunistic bacterium Burkholderia cenocepacia is feared by cystic fibrosis patients and is emerging in hospital-acquired infections. An international study sheds new light on the infection mechanism of this opportunistic pathogen that may have large implications for treatment strategies.

How do you microscopically image zebrafish larvae? The new free online course ‘Imaging the Vertebrate embryo’ teaches you all about it. Leiden PhD candidates Salomé Muñoz Sánchez and Radoslaw Gora contributed to the course.

Control of infectious diseases poses continuous challenges for human health.

Nanoparticles that transport medicines to a specific part of the human body are usually broken down in the liver prematurely. Jeroen Bussmann from Leiden University has discovered a new method to prevent this from happening. Publication in ACS Nano.

In July, 2018, the Institute of Biology Leiden hosted the 11th conference of the Zebrafish Disease Models Society (ZDMS), an international association dedicated to the advancement of basic and clinical research using zebrafish disease models. More than 350 researchers from all over the world gathered…

Pharmacologist Rob van Wijk is the Highlighted Trainee Author in the October 2019 issue of the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. In his research, Van Wijk aims for a new paradigm by combining experimental work and computational data analysis.

Professor Annemarie Meijer and several students explained to more than 8000 visitors the zebrafish as a model for research during the National Weekend of Science (3-4 Oct) at Science Center NEMO in Amsterdam.

An interdisciplinary team of Leiden researchers has discovered that wasting syndrome, a severe byproduct of tuberculosis, is the same for all humans and animals studied. The discovery offers new opportunities to investigate the still insufficiently understood condition. The scientists also developed…

Science, Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL)

To develop good cancer treatments, we need to know much more about how malignant tumour cells develop. Professor Ewa Snaar-Jagalska looks at not just the effect of medication on isolated cells but also the behaviour of cancer cells in their tissue environment. Inaugural lecture on 11 December.

He presented his PhD research entitled “Kick-starting drug development; translational systems pharmacology using innovative zebrafish experiments and advanced computational modelling”. During his presentation, Rob highlighted the advancements he made in using zebrafish as model in system pharmacolog…

What impact does a mid-season wildfire have on grassland invertebrates?

Michiel van der Vaart with a team from Leiden University and the LUMC, led by IBL-researcher Annemarie Meijer, discovered that DRAM1 is a protein that regulates anti-bacterial autophagy, a defense mechanism against infections such as tuberculosis.

Rob van Wijk gave an interview on the role of zebrafish in drug discovery and development, published in FIGON’s journal Medicines as a preview of LACDR’s representation at the PhD competition during the Dutch Medicines Days (DMD). The entire interview can be read below.

Science, Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL)

Who benefits from CXCR/CXCL chemokine signaling during infection: host or pathogen?

Promotor: Prof.dr. H.P. Spaink, Co-promotor: Prof.dr. A.H. Meijer

How to make a quantitative assessment of the relative contribution to toxicity of ions and particles? Is the toxicity of nanoparticles related to their size or shape? Which physicochemical property of nanoparticles is an appropriate dose metric of nanoparticles?

Although nanoparticles are extensively used in various applications like consumer products and have most probably entered the environment, little is known about the effects of these particles on living organisms.

Can we enhance the capacity of host immune cells to kill mycobacteria via production of reactive nitrogen species?

What are the host immune defence mechanisms that control intracellular infections and how are these subverted by pathogens?