In Microbial Sciences, we perform multidisciplinary research to understand the structure and function of microbes at all levels of biological organization, from small molecules and cellular structures at atomic resolution to multicellular communities.

How can Staphylococcus aureus bacteria subvert the host immune system?

Is it possible to synthesize industrially relevant compounds in a sustainable manner through the use of light-capturing cyanobacteria?

In populations with a seed-bank, individuals can temporarily become dormant and refrain from reproduction until they can become active again. The repository of all dormant individuals in the population is called the seed-bank. Seed-banks are observed in many taxa, including plants, bacteria and other…

β-Lactamases are enzymes that can break down β-lactam substrates, such as antibiotics, preventing the use of these antibiotics for the treatment of various infectious diseases. However, some compounds, β-lactamase inhibitors, can block these enzymes allowing for possible treatments using a combination…

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.

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).

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.

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.

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…

On this page, you will find the recordings of the online This Week's Discoveries from May 12, 2020, as well as a list of speakers since October 2015.

Three Leiden researchers will each receive a Vici grant of 1.5m euros. They are historian Cátia Antunes, cell biologist Dennis Claessen and archaeologist Marie Soressi. This grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) will give them the opportunity to form their own research group over the next five…

The CMCB comprises research groups from the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL), the Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC) and the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC).

Microbial Sciences' contribution to the Evolution & Biodiversity research theme focuses on understanding how bacteria sense and respond to their environment, and how bacterial diversity and evolution is influenced by cooperative and antagonistic interactions taking place between microbes.

Can we make a better vancomycin?

Bacteria in the teeth tell us a lot about nutrition and disease in our ancestors. It also tells us more about the immune system. This provides clues for treating modern diseases and allergies. For a long time archaeologists were irritated by tartar on the teeth of excavated skulls. They thought that…

Vaccines are an extraordinary category of biopharmaceuticals. They are usually prophylactic and come in many types, from whole bacteria to peptides and nucleic acids. They are very cost effective and almost every human on the planet is vaccinated. The latter mandates that vaccines have to be extremely…

The genomic DNA of every organism is organized and compacted in order to fit inside the cell. This is achieved by the joint action of numerous architectural proteins that aid in folding the genome. Genome folding is tightly interconnected with transcription, with genes in certain regions being silenced,…

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

The CIGR comprises research groups from the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL), the Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC), the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) and the Leiden Institue of Physics (LION).

We aim to develop a microfluidic platform that can parallelize testing the performance and characteristics of pure, mixed and environmental bacteriophage samples.

We showed that constitutive and inducible chemical and morphological defenses against Western flower thrips differ between tomato and chrysanthemum plants.

Can we exploit the cell death machinery of the host to develop new host-directed anti-TB treatments?

This thesis investigates the relations between metabolism and anatomy through the use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).

Our immune system protects us against disease, but every now and then, something goes wrong: an enemy invades our bodies or our immune system attacks our own cells and we become ill. Doctors and researchers at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) want to be able to manipulate the immune system…

Edith Schippers, Minister of Health, will be investing six million euros over the coming four years to boost research on new antibiotics. The programme will be set up by several different parties, including the Leiden Centre for Antimicrobial Research.

PhD defence

PhD defence

We investigate bacteria and fungi to understand their malicious or beneficial impact on food crops and their pathogenic or antibiotic role in human health.

The overall aim of this project is to understand, on the molecular level, how the bacterium V. fischeri cells interacts with their squid host.

This functional genomics project aims at understanding the biology of the underlying mycelium differentiation and autolysis processes in much more detail.

Unraveling the immune-suppressive actions of drugs like prednisone.

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

By carrying out fundamental research and providing excellent education, universities become a breeding ground for innovation and entrepreneurship.

To get a feeling of how we operate at LED3 when it comes to Early Drug Discovery, please browse through our case studies. When you select a case study you’ll find relevant contacts.

Lecture

Natural product inspired antibiotics to address resistance

Promotores: Prof.dr. H.P. Spaink & Prof.dr. P.C.W. Hogendoorn, Co-promotor: Dr. M.J.M. Schaaf

This ecological community has long been known to affect host biology, and their diverse roles have been further clarified in recent years following numerous studies of animal:microbiota interactions in diverse systems.

This work has described synthetic strategies towards well-defined structures resembling capsular polysaccharide (CPS) fragments, CPS mimics, teichoic acid (TA) fragments as well as a third-generation ring-closing tandem metathesis (RCM) linker to better exploit the potential of automated synthesis.

Promotor: Prof.dr. H.P. Spaink, Co-promotor: Dr. M. van der Zee

Promotor: G.A. van der Marel, Co-promotor: J.D.C. Codée

What is the function of the insect serosa?

Carbohydrates are present on the surface of bacteria making them suitable antigen candidates for vaccine development. This thesis deals with the synthesis of two carbohydrate-based components; the capsular polisaccharide of S. aureus type 5 and teichoic acids from staphilococci and enterococci speci…

Promotor: G.P. van Wezel

Animal Sciences’ contributions to the Host-Microbe Interactions research theme focus on the interaction of animal hosts with pathogenic microbes but also the beneficial role of the gut microbiome.

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

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