In this thesis, we will utilize embryonic zebrafish tumour models to understand the interaction between engrafted human cancer cells and macrophages from the host, test drug administration modalities and anti-cancer efficacies of newly-developed PDT and PACT compounds, and test a light-triggered liposomal…

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

Promotor: A.H. Meijer, Co-promotor: B.E. Snaar-Jagalska

How do macrophages and neutrophils contribute to metastatic onset?

Can zebrafish provide a fast, sensitive in vivo vertebrate model for identifying novel mechanisms of Ewing sarcoma progression and for development of new anticancer compounds in a time- and cost-effective manner?

Promotores: Prof.dr. P.C.W. Hogendoorn & Prof.dr. H.P. Spaink, Co-promotor: Dr. B.E. Snaar-Jagalska

Is there a sufficiently large market for drug screening and testing in Zebrafish larvae using membrane fusion?

A novel in vivo model system for studies on glucocorticoid resistance

Lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs) are a group of orphan diseases characterized by lysosomal dysfunction or impaired lysosomal catabolism and affect collectively about 1 in 5000 live births.

In this thesis, we have studied the potential of the zebrafish larval model in studying the ECS, as a complementary model to the existing rodent models.

How can zebrafish research help understanding human diseases?

How to identify patients at risk of developing devastating, metastatic disease and facilitate the development of personalised treatment for prostate cancer patients?

Promotor: Prof.dr. H.P. Spaink Co-promotor: Dr. B.E. Snaar

One of the major limitations in culturing complex tissues or organs is the lack of vascularization in the cultured tissue. Development of a functional capillary bed could overcome this problem.

Promotor: Prof.dr. B. van de Water, Co-promotores: L.T.M. van der Ven, A.S. Kienhuis

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…

How can zebrafish models be used to gain a better understanding of host-pathogen interaction mechanisms and to screen new drugs for infectious disease treatment?

Which immune mechanisms are involved in host defense against Staphylococcal infection?

Promotores: Prof.dr. W.J.G.M. Peijnenburg & Dr. M.G. Vijver

Promotor: Prof.dr. M.K. Richardson

The main aim of my Ph.D. thesis is to further explore the value of using early developing zebrafish larvae (up to 5 dpf) as a model to study anxiety-like behaviour and their pharmacological modulation with drugs.

How can zebrafish research help to understand and fight human cancer?

Promotor: Prof.dr. J. den Hertog

Promotor: Carel J. ten Cate, Co-Promotor: Hans W. Slabbekoorn

Exploiting metabolic vulnerabilities to identify anticancer compounds in zebrafish synthetic lethality screens.

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.

The zebrafish is a promising vertebrate model organism in early drug discovery and development.

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

PhD Defence

PhD Defence

How can we culture an artificial vascular network to support tissue development ex vivo?

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

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

To what extent is sound a stressor to fish? And are behavioural and physiological phenotypes equally sensitive to disturbance by noise pollution?

Promotor: Prof.dr. J.N. Kok

Promotor: H.P. Spaink, A.H. Meijer Co-promotor: R. Marin-Juez

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…

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

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

What are the biological effects of Chinese herbal medicine in regulation of cancer cell metastasis?

What are the biological and biophysical mechanisms that control chemokine gradient sensing and migration of immune, endothelial, and tumour cells in tumour development?

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

Nanoplastics influence the behaviour of larval zebrafish, says new research by the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL) and the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML). The researchers observed that a certain type of nanoparticles leads to stress reactions in the sugar balance, resulting in hyperactivity…

Animal Sciences’ contributions to the Development & Disease research theme include the mechanisms and evolution of embryonic development, the development of cognitive mechanisms, and animal models for understanding mechanisms of human disease.

Control of infectious diseases poses continuous challenges for human health.

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…

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