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.

Seven Leiden researchers have each been awarded a Vici grant by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). This will enable them to form a research group and develop their own innovative line of research.

Under 18, no alcohol. In spite of this slogan, adolescents still have access to alcohol. But how harmful is that one beer for the adolescent brain? Research, including in Leiden, may provide the answer.

Interested in what drives your colleagues to become a member of OSCL? And how they apply Open Science in their work? Below we interview OSCL member Ruthie Pliskin (from Social, Economic and Organisational Psychology).

Wiskunde en Natuurwetenschappen, Leids Instituut voor Chemisch Onderzoek (LIC)

One of the ways of understanding another culture better is to examine what people experience when they read a text, or look at an image. Leiden experts have a lot of knowledge in this field, for example on culture in ancient Japan.

Beyond Boundaries: Religion, Region, Language and the State is a major multidisciplinary research project which aims to re-vision the history of Asia in one of its most significant periods. The project is based at the British Museum, British Library and the School of Oriental and African Studies, and…

Is it possible to formulate a new conceptual foundation for attributing an evaluative role to historiography of science, without relinquishing the historiographic sensitivity of recent work in the discipline?

The infectious diseases malaria and tuberculosis are responsible for 2.1 million deaths every year. Leiden researchers are currently testing a new tuberculosis vaccine.

Research facilities within reach of LIBC members:

Leiden chemist Roxanne Kieltyka is part of the 2018 Talented 12 list of the American Chemical Society. That was announced by the journal Chemical & Engineering News on 19 August.

For the next six months the Van Vollenhoven Institute of Leiden University, together with The Asia Foundation (TAF), will develop a tool for evidence-based land policy in Timor-Leste.

The Department of Medical Microbiology at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) is researching antiviral drugs that could treat and prevent SARS-CoV-2 in various projects. One part of the PanCoroNed project is being led by Martijn van Hemert and involves lab tests into the antiviral effect of molecules…

The cellular recycling system in zebrafish is capable of eating harmful bacteria and thus resist infections such as tuberculosis and salmonellosis. That is written by Leiden biologists from the group of Annemarie Meijer. Stimulating this form of defence could be used in new treatment methods against…

Have you always wondered what it means to practice open science? Are you curious to know how you can apply open research practices in your own research? Or would you like to share your open science experiences with others?

‘AI can’t do half as much as people think,’ says computer scientist and psychologist Roy de Kleijn. He tries to teach robots seemingly easy things, and keeps on discovering how smart human intelligence really is. Three things that computers are no way near doing.

Researchers at the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) have managed to culture human heart muscle cells on a massive scale. This is an exceptional achievement because it is very difficult to replicate heart muscle cells outside the body. Using a special technique, the researchers have now created…

The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences has elected five Leiden professors from different disciplines as new members. One of them is Judi Mesman, Dean of LUC

Scientists at the LUMC are working hard on potential virus inhibitors, antiviral screening and a treatment for COVID-19. SteunLeiden.nl has started a crowdfunding campaign for this research, under the hashtag #wakeuptocorona. Professor of Virology Eric Snijder explains why this is desperately needed…

This NWO-funded research programme focuses on the assumptions and methodology of the writing of history of science. History of science is in many respects a flourishing discipline: it currently yields an impressive volume of studies. Systematic reflection about the ways in which history of science may…

Misinformation spreads easily and fast. It gets presented as news, whereas actual news gets dismissed as fake. Conflicting streams of information allows all sides to cherry-pick whatever is most comfortable, boosting degrees of confidence and confusing the deliberation of both politicians and voters.…

Leiden Asia Departments

The Institute for Philosophy at Leiden University is host to the NWO programme,

Description of Effects of glufosinate-ammonium on off crop vegetation.

Computers are capable of making incredibly accurate predictions on the basis of machine learning. In other words, these computers can learn without intervention once they have been pre-programmed by humans. At LIACS, we explore and push the borders of what a revolutionary new generation of algorithms…

A large interdisciplinary NWO research project attempted to discover the cognitive origin of the human ability to learn linguistic rules. This is not so simple, according to linguist Andreea Geambaşu and her colleagues. PhD defence on 11 December.

For many years, scientists have observed a correlation between Alzheimer’s disease and a surplus of iron in the brain. However, a causal link between the two has not been proven yet. We lack knowledge concerning the specific form of iron that is involved in the development of neurodegenerative diseases.…

How do archaeologists test ideas about the evolution of the modern brain? Veni-researcher Geeske Langejans and then Master student Paul Kozowyk (Leiden University) prepared different Prehistoric glue recipes and tested these for strength in modern test machines at the Delft University of Technology.

In this inspiration lab, Prof. Sandra Groeneveld and Matthijs de Jong (Deloitte) will share their vision on the Future of Work. What are the trends and developments in the fields of Organisation Theory and Human Resource Management? What is the impact on unemployment rates? And what is the impact on…

Amino acids are the building blocks for life on earth. They may originate in space and reach the Earth via comets and meteorites. Daniël Paardekooper examined part of this hypothesis. PhD defence on 5 July.

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Leiden University has an active open science community. Open science means transparency in all phases of research by precisely documenting every step of the way and making this publicly available. ‘It’s time to be open,’ say psychologists Anna van ’t Veer and Zsuzsika Sjoerds. There is increasing awareness…

Knowledge and culture subproject 2:

The major aim is to examine the potential of learning the body to produce a similar physiological (autonomic, neuroendocrine, or immune) and physical (e.g., desensitization of persistent physical symptoms) response to placebo medication than to active medication (pharmacological conditioning). If proven…

Knowledge and culture subproject 3:

Rechtsgeleerdheid, Instituut voor Metajuridica, eLaw - Centrum voor Recht en Digitale Technologie

Archaeologist Virginia García-Díaz made replicas of centuries-old tools to be able to study North Holland settlements from the corded-ware culture. PhD defence 23 February.

On 29 June the startup company Future Genomics Technologies will be launched. Its aim is to make DNA technology and research available for businesses faster. Future Genomics Technologies is a collaboration between DNA research laboratory BaseClear and Leiden University.

Birds around airports are more aggressive and sing as if they have hearing loss. Collaboration between researchers of Manchester Metropolitan University and the Institute of Biology Leiden has led to surprising new findings about the impact of anthropogenic noise on birds around airports. Publication…

In a recent mega-analysis, researchers from Leiden University aimed to clarify the contradictory findings of research into social anxiety disorder. They found that to obtain reliable research results having the largest possible sample size is important. Publication in NeuroImage:Clinical.

Dutch researchers have developed a new tool to label DNA for studying chromosomes in live cells. The tool is non-invasive and can be applied in culture but also in living organisms, such as zebrafish embryos. The team published their findings in the journal Nucleic Acids Research.

Universe Awareness is one of fifteen projects chosen by WISE for providing compelling and innovative solutions to today’s most pressing challenges in education.

Night of Discoveries is where you get to find out all about research at Leiden. On 21 September, the picturesque city centre will form the backdrop to a programme filled with lectures, talk shows, music, theatre and excursions. And many are in English. Here are a few of the highlights.

The Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), the Danstem Institute from the University of Copenhagen and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne have received 300m euros from the Novo Nordisk foundation. The aim of this new international consortium is to bring stem-cell based therapies…

Which two Leiden scientists will present their research in the most compelling way in three minutes? It could be those with the most supporters. The Leiden preliminary heat of FameLab is taking place on 14 February. Sign up now to be in the audience!

Adhesives are an incredibly important part of every day life. They help hold together everything from shoes and mobile phones to satellites in space. But we didn’t invent adhesives: Neanderthals did, to make handles for stone tools over 191,000 years ago. Leiden researchers now found that Neanderthals…