This project explored the role of material culture, in casu painted plaster and its technologies, in expressing dynamic social identities and in forging complex interwoven human relationships in the context of the Middle to Late Bronze Age of the Aegean and East Mediterranean.

When the immune system attacks cancer, the tumour modifies itself to escape the immune reaction. Researchers at LUMC published on this subject in Nature on 28 June.

Practical applications for the reconstruction of the past

Cathodic corrosion for producing nanoparticles was (re)discovered when trying to control the electrochemical etching of a scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) tip.

The directorate of Leiden Observatory consists of the Scientific Director, the Director of Education and the Director of Operations.

Are Weyl particles the ideal conductors? Do cells without a cell wall play a role in chronic Tuberculosis infections? Carlo Beenakker and Dennis Claessen want to answer these questions. They both received a KLEIN grant from the NWO. With these grants, NWO wants to stimulate innovative, fundamental r…

Three speakers, three fascinating science stories and a well-filled lecture hall. The Niko Tinbergen Lecture had a successful restart on 10 December 2019.

Cardiovascular diseases are the primary cause of death in the world with atherosclerosis as primary underlying cause.

Researchers from Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) have discovered how specialised immune cells can detect and remove cancers that are ‘invisible’ to the conventional defence mechanisms of the immune system. Their work has been published in Nature. The findings…

Joost Beltman (LACDR, Leiden University) has provided novel insights in the way T cells migrate towards virus-infected cells. This was accomplished by a combination of experimental research in the group of Ton Schumacher (Dutch Cancer Institute, NKI) and computer simulations in collaboration with Rob…

Promotor: T. Schmidt

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) have enabled the success of mRNA vaccines but remain limited in broader therapeutic use by challenges in delivery efficiency, targeting, and mechanistic understanding.

American pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb will be building a new (CAR-T) cell therapy facility in the Oegstgeest part of the Leiden Bio Science Park. The company will manufacture and develop CAR T-cell therapy for patients with blood cancer (leukaemia), for example.

The main aim of the project is to collect and update on a regular basis bibliometric and patent indicators that can be used to underpin and inform analyses pursued at the European Commission (EC) to assess European and national scientific and technological performance.

In breast cancer, metastasis rather than the primary tumour is the cause of death. A lack of oxygen in the tumour cells promotes this metastasis, accompanied by a reprogramming of the cell's metabolism. PhD candidate Qiuyu Liu investigated these alterations to get more knowledge about the actionable…

Light can be used to apply forces on single cells. Focused lasers have been used by physicists to tweeze particles and to manipulate them. These so called “optical tweezers” can be used as mechanical phenotyping tools for characterising the mechanics of materials and living objects.

Leiden biophysicists have found a new possible way to attack cancer cells. They have located ‘sinkholes’ on the cells where receptor proteins disappear from the surface. If a drug could push these proteins towards those areas, it would kill the cancer cell.

An overview of awards and prizes granted to our staff and students in 2021, as well as special appointments at Leiden University and other institutions.

Pericytes, the mural cells of blood microvessels, are important regulators of vascular morphogenesis and function that have been postulated to mechanically control microvascular diameter through as yet unknown mechanisms.

The Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) will start construction this year of the largest non-profit stem cell and gene therapy facility in the Netherlands, and one of the largest facilities in Europe. NECSTGEN – the Netherlands Center for the Clinical Advancement of Stem Cell and Gene Therapies…

This research project is funded by a subsidy from Instituut Gak.

The first index to measure product safety, sustainability, and circularity, operationalising the EU’s (SSbD) framework.

The Altai region has yielded a cluster of Middle and Upper Paleolithic stratified sites that have been recently excavated using a multidisciplinary approach.

The RISIS project aims at creating a distributed research infrastructure to support and advance science and innovation studies. This will give the field a strong scientific push forward, and at the same time, provide a radically improved evidence base for research and innovation policies, for research…

With the rise of information and communication technologies, large amounts of data are being generated and stored in databases. In order to get a better grip on these large amounts of data, serious efforts are being made to discover patterns and relations in the data with the help of new techniques.…

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

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

Organ-on-chip technology is used in drug research and customized treatments for patients. Research Institutes and industry join forces within the Institute for human Organ and Disease Model Technologies (hDMT) that was officially launched on May 18. Combining facilities, people and expertise will allow…

Single-celled organisms have stiffer DNA than multicellular lifeforms like humans and rice. Theoretical physicists managed to simulate the folding in full genomes for the first time to reach this conclusion. Publication in Biophysical Journal on February 7.

An overview of awards and prizes granted to our staff and students in 2018, as well as special appointments and royal distinctions.

A group of single-celled organisms organises its DNA in a similar way to higher organisms such as plants, animals, and fungi. However, the way packaged DNA is read out differs between the two related groups, Bram Henneman discovered. PhD defence on 5 December.

Leiden researchers have found minute movements in the laccase enzyme. This discovery could lead to the development of much more efficient biofuel cells. Publication in Biophysical Journal.

Drug development is hampered by the limited predictive value of conventional 2D culture systems, which fail to recapitulate the complexity of the disease microenvironment and contribute to high clinical attrition rates.

Healthy aging is one of the prime goals in today's society and atherosclerosis is among the greatest causes of morbidity in elderly. Cardiovascular disease patients receiving treatment are often of advanced aged and have an aged immune system, which limits translating experimental findings to the pa…

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

Advanced fluorescence microscopy techniques have revealed how steroid receptors move inside the nucleus. The results were published by a team from Leiden University and the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, led by IBL-researcher Marcel Schaaf.

The article offers a comparative systematic literature review of the principles, norms, and strategies associated with Security by Design and Privacy by Design

This dissertation combines the use of defined microenvironments, high-resolution fluorescence microscopy, and time-resolved analysis, to study intracellular and cellular motility.

Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease in the world. One of its symptoms is the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta.