We aim to provide new insights relating to the spectacular multi-cellular life cycle of streptomycetes and other actinobacteria.

We aim to unravel the complex and intertwining regulatory systems that control development and antibiotic production in streptomycetes.

We aim to engineer streptomycetes to fully exploit their potential for natural product productions, by a rational design and evolution approach.

Pathogenic bacteria are increasingly resistant to today’s antibiotics. Professor Gilles van Wezel seeks new forms of antibiotics in good bacteria that live in the soil.

How do plants lure microscopically small 'support teams' into their roots for protection against diseases? And what functions are activated in the microbes and the plants?

The Institute Board is responsible for the overall management of the institute, as well as the administration and organization of the institute’s teaching and research activities. Research and education are managed collaboratively, with strategic input from various representatives and groups, including…

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

Although bacteria are usually invisible to the naked eye, they are the silent force behind many processes in our daily lives.

The Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL) is an internationally oriented institute for research and education in biology. Some of their staff members are part of the Leiden Human Evolution Collective.

Key publications of the Aging and Immunity group

Key publications of the Cardiovascular Pharmacology group

Here, you can browse the publications of the Navigation Lab Leiden:

Through his project we will unravel the global regulatory networks that control gene expression in Streptomyces bacteria and allow them to properly respond to major changes in the environment; we will then harness this knowledge to activate and identify novel antibiotics

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.

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

Almost all bacteria are enveloped by a cell wall that provides cellular protection.

Bacteria are highly complex and diverse organisms that have adapted to survive in ecological niches ranging from the most extreme to the most heterogeneous environments.

There are millions of gene clusters that encode the biosynthesis of bioactive natural products, with the vast majority yet unknown. How can we prioritize them to discover new chemical space for antibiotics? For this we will set up a pipeline based on federated learning (AI), synthetic biology and bioactivity…

On this page you will find an overview of awards and prizes granted to our staff and students in 2026, as well as special appointments at Leiden University and other institutions.

The filamentous bacteria Streptomyces are widespread inhabitants of terrestrial soils.

The increasing resistance of pathogenic bacteria to antibiotics necessitates the discovery of new medicines.

Promotor: G.P. van Wezel

Streptomyces bacteria are a valuable source of natural products, many of which are used in the clinic or in biotechnology.

Promotor: Prof.dr. G.P. van Wezel, Co-Promotor: E. Vijgenboom

The soil-dwelling, filamentous bacteria of the genus Streptomyces are renowned for their production of useful secondary metabolites including antibiotics. The work described in this thesis provides new insights on the role and regulation of antibiotic production and resistance in these bacteria.

Streptomyces are filamentous bacteria that produce more than two-thirds of known antibiotics.

Streptomyces are multicellular, Gram-positive bacteria in the phylum of actinobacteria which produce a high amount of bioactive natural products of which the expression is tightly coordinated with the life cycle.

Streptomyces are bacteria abundant in soil that participate in diverse and complex interactions. These bacteria are the main producers of the antibiotics we currently use in the clinic.

Plants are colonized by an astounding number of microorganisms that can provide different life-support functions, including nutrient acquisition and protection against (a)biotic stresses like drought or pathogen attack.

Bacterial chemosensory arrays are protein assemblies that are the key structural and functional component for motile bacteria to sense their internal or environmental chemical signals.

Streptomyces are prolific producers of enzymes and secondary metabolites, including more than 50% of all clinical antibiotics. This makes them highly attractive for medical, biotechnological, and industrial purposes.

The ongoing increase in antimicrobial resistance combined with the low discovery of novel antibiotics is a serious threat to our health care.

Actinobacteria are well known for the production of bioactive natural products, many of which have applications in the fields of human, animal and plant health. Subject of this thesis are the anthracyclines, glycosylated aromatic polyketides with potent anticancer activity.

This thesis describes the structural and biochemical characterization of the β-lactamase BlaC from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), and the Alr and YlmE proteins from Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2).Mtb is the main cause of tuberculosis.

Filamentous Actinobacteria, such as Streptomyces, produce a plethora of chemically diverse bioactive metabolites that have found applications across medicine, agriculture and biotechnology.

Promotor: G.P. van Wezel, Co-promotor: D. Claessen

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria pose a major health threat. Addressing this challenge requires among others the development of new antibacterial compounds. The research described in this thesis focuses on discovering novel antibiotics from soil bacteria, specifically Streptomyces and Paenibacillus.Despite…

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

The bacterial cell wall is a nearly universal structure that offers protection and gives the cell its shape. However, environmental stressors, such as cell wall-targeting antibiotics and hyperosmotic conditions, can induce bacteria to shift to a wall-deficient state. It is unknown whether the lack of…

Streptomyces present a valuable platform for natural product discovery. Lugdunomycin is a novel angucycline-derived polyketide from Streptomyces sp QL37, with unprecedented skeleton and antimicrobial activity.

Promotor: G.P. van Wezel, Co-promotor: Y.H. Choi

Antibiotics are a class of medicine most people take for granted. But pathogenic bacteria are becoming more and more resistant to our antibiotics, and this poses a great challenge for future treatments. There is thus a great societal need to identify new molecules that can address new targets and be…

Actinobacteria are Gram-positive bacteria that have a complex multicellular life cycle and are well known for their ability to produce a wide range of bioactive natural products (NPs).

The endophytic microbiota is a community of various microorganisms that reside in plant tissue. These microbes are known to promote plant health and resilience, and their members do not simply exist side by side.