Atherosclerosis is a progressive disease resulting in the formation of an arterial plaque. Despite lipid lowering, recurrent cardiovascular events remain a risk. While atherosclerosis is primarily lipid-driven, the immune system plays a critical role in the pathophysiology.

Inflammatory skin diseases such as psoriasis and atopic dermatitis can severely impact both the physical and social aspect of a patient’s life. Aberrant inflammatory responses are thought to be a major causative factor in these disorders, but an abundance of different factors contribute to the development…

Promotor: J. Kuiper

Discovery and development of Central Nervous System (CNS) drugs is hampered by high attrition rates.

The lack of success of new CNS drugs in clinical development is in part due to the complexity of the CNS, unexpected side effects, difficulties for drugs to penetrate the brain, but also by the lack of biomarkers.

Is EEG theta\beta ratio predictive towards the negative effects of stress on cognitive performance in individuals suffering from performance anxiety? Can we improve resilience to performance anxiety by using a theta\beta ratio neurofeedback intervention?

The aim of this project is to explore the use of statistical interaction models to quantify cross-omics and omics-drug interactions in large-scale clinical and experimental datasets

Exploring metabolomics-based biomarkers for diagnosis and treatment response monitoring of community-acquired pneumonia

Over the past decade, several novel types of spatially resolved

The focus of the described research in this thesis is on the oxidative stress response (Nrf2 pathway). The aim of the research presented in this thesis is to obtain more information concerning microRNAs which are involved in the Nrf2 pathway, to determine and evaluate the application of microRNAs for…

Sepsis is a life-threatening condition caused by a dysregulated host response to infection, it is associated with significant morbidity, mortality, and with a high financial burden on global healthcare systems. Bacterial infections are the primary cause of sepsis, but the growing prevalence of antimicrobial…

Antimicrobial drugs constitute a fundamental part of modern medicine. The global rise in antimicrobial resistance poses a major threat to global health.

A new research line is the development of liquid biopsy fingerprints to predict early Alzheimer’s disease (AD) stage in human in readily accessible body fluids in human (in collaboration with: Dr. Geert-Jan Groeneveld, CHDR; Prof. Elga de Vries, Free University Medical Center; and others).

Former masterstudent Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences Maddalena Centanni will be awarded the 2020 Arenberg Coimbra Prize for Erasmus Students. Centanni spent her six month Erasmus exchange at Uppsala Universiy in Sweden where she looked for ways to improve anti-cancer drug dosing.

Heart failure is a major health care problem with high mortality.

The research described in this thesis combines the latest insights in lysosomal function with lysosome centred cell signalling.

This longitudinal study is focused on neurodevelopmental problems in young children with XXY, XXX and XYY, aged 1 to 6 years.

GRIPonMASH will address the unmet public health need of reducing disease burden and comorbidities associated with Metabolic dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD).

The power of personalized nutrition lies in being able to conduct clinical research on healthy people while capturing metabolic markers sensitive to the impact of environmental and metabolic stressors (e.g. diet, changing sex hormones and the menstrual cycle).

The Division of Systems Pharmacology and Pharmacy (SPP) aims to develop precision medicine approaches to characterize and predict variation in treatment response and enhance translational drug development strategies.

PhD defence

PhD defence

Climate change is a challenge for both current and future generations. New biological resources have to be developed in order to meet the demand for energy as well as the demand for food.

An overview of Quantitative Pharmacology projects

An overview of research projects at the Predictive Pharmacology group.

Health research, medical practice and consequently the whole population is increasingly affected by digitization, data science and AI.

Our group is part of the Metabolomics and Analytics Centre where we accompany the data from its acquisition all the way to the publication of identified associations and biomarkers for a range of human diseases. The generated data of the metabolic measurements are assessed using an in-house quality…

The predication of the effect (efficiency and toxicity) of a drug in a patient is very important in (i) clinical decision support and (ii) the development of novel drug treatments.

The aim of this research area is to be able to predict human drug response on the basis of mathematical models that are developed using preclinical experiments and prior knowledge.

The ideas underlying this thesis are that lipidomics may improve the diagnosis of liver metabolic diseases, and can provide further insights into the underlying pathophysiology of these diseases.

The goal of pre-clinical development is to bridge the transition from lead compounds to clinical candidates by comprehensively characterizing safety, efficacy, and pharmacological properties. Once a lead compound demonstrates promising activity in disease models, it enters pre-clinical development where…

How does stress influence cognitive performance? What is the role of selective attention to threatening information in this effect? Could we prevent stress-induced decline of cognitive performance with pharmacological interventions? Could we use resting state theta/beta ratio as a biomarker for cognitive…

The Quantitative Pharmacology group headed by Coen van Hasselt focusses on the application of state-of-the-art quantitative pharmacometrics and systems pharmacology modeling combined with translational experimental models to develop personalized treatment strategies for antibiotics and to combat antimicrobial…

Prof. Elizabeth de Lange is concerned with the allocation of resources for the conduct of science towards the goal of best serving the public interest. Also, while she underscores that there is still the need for using animals in drug research, she is concerned about this use, and advocates the use…

Health Data Science Leiden University

Promotor: J. van der Greef, T. Hankemeier; Co-promotor: H.A. van Wietmarschen

Can we develop a generic method for Quan/Qual analysis of small molecule drugs, their metabolites and endogenous metabolites in (pre-)clinical samples?

In this thesis, a system pharmacology approach, integrating metabolomics, pharmacology and chemical biology, was applied to understand and modulate the endocannabinoid system across different model systems (cells, zebrafish, mice and humans).

Neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease (PD), are increasing in prevalence due to the aging population. Despite extensive study, these diseases are still not fully understood and the lack of personalised treatment options that can target the cause of the diseases, rather than the symptoms,…

Promotor: Prof.dr. M. Danhof

Thirty years ago, mutations in the BRCA1 gene were first linked to hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, establishing a genetic basis for cancer development.

This minor is focused on fundamental scientific research required for discovery of new drug targets and development of new drugs. Students learn how disease and drug-induced alterations in signaling pathways can be used for the discovery of new drug targets and the development of personalized drugs.

Previous research has found important inter-individual differences in the pharmacokinetics (PK) of morphine in special populations such as children, the morbidly obese or the critically ill.

In this thesis, mathematical modeling and simulation was applied as a tool to inform quantitative decision making in oncology drug discovery and development.

Grants awarded to molecular physiology research

The Biomedical Metabolomics Facility Leiden (BMFL) is the core metabolomics facility of Leiden University and the Metabolomics and Analytics Centre (MAC). We offer a highly structured environment for advanced MS-based metabolomics studies and build on fully validated, state-of-the-art assays that each…