Not experiments and lab coats, but computers and artificial intelligence: this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to the inventors of the groundbreaking AI model, AlphaFold. This programme accurately predicts protein structures based on their genetic code—a crucial step in understanding biological…

In this thesis, bioorthogonal chemistry is combined with correlative light-electron microscopy to selectively label and study pathogenic intracellular bacteria within the host immune cell.

The redox-conversion reaction of metal-disulfide and metal-thiolate complexes are important, as they may shed light on electron-transfer reactions that often occur in Nature.

The ethics of ghosts, spectres, and mediums in postcolonial literature

This thesis aims at thinking through the ethical position of animals in a way that differs radically from the manner in which this ethical position is thought within contemporary animal rights discourse.

Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) implies that societal actors (researchers, citizens, policy makers, business, third sector organisations, etc.) work together during the whole research and innovation process in order to better align both the process and its outcomes with the values, needs and…

The dark matter of biology: clumps of sugar molecules that, for example, form sugary webs around pathogens. We know very little about them. Wouter Remmerswaal threw all his talent into the challenge – both in the lab and as a modeller – and succeeded. He received his PhD on 12th September.

How do classroom demonstration experiments help students learn chemical reasoning? Marie-Jetta den Otter, PhD student at ICLON, researched this. She defends her thesis on 6 December.

Last year, chemists Dennis Wander and Hermen Overkleeft contributed to an important discovery about a widely used cancer drug. Their research has now been recognised as Finalist for the PNAS Cozzarelli Prize in the Biomedical Sciences class.

Chemical biology research at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry is aimed at understanding biological processes at the molecular level to strengthen the knowledge base of human health and disease. The approach to achieve this goal is a fundamental chemical one; with the aid of chemical probes biological…

In order to be able to develop effective medicine and treatments to prevent or cure autoimmune diseases or cancer we need to understand the mechanisms how they arise and what drives their course.Unravelling the fundamental molecular mechanisms influencing the onset and course of diseases such as allergies,…

Bas Verberk defended his thesis on 6 September 2016

This dissertation contains the further development of a method for linguistic-stylistic research, which provides a systematic means to interpret global impressions of a text through choices in formulation at word- and sentence level.

You can find more information on the Dutch webpage. Click on the “Nederlands” button above.

On 26 February 2020, Hans-Jan van Kralingen defended his thesis 'De ondeelbaarheid van het pand- en hypotheekrecht, deconstructie van een leerstuk'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof.mr. W.J. Zwalve and Prof.mr. E. Koops.

This publication is in Dutch.

The dissertation focuses on the work of German philosophers Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer, founders of critical theory at the Frankfurt School. Specifically, it is a study of the “early” writings, dated between 1925 and 1940, to reconstruct the early stages of critical theory. The thesis argues…

Fish climbing trees, storks taking care of their parents… Premodern textual and visual culture presents us with a fabulous bestiary that reveals ingenious and rich reflections on the animal kingdom.

Michiel Pronk defended his thesis on 30 March 2016

This book aims to understand cultural transitions and negotiations between art and politics from 1989 to 2020 through analysis of a series of Cuban novels.

The study at hand focuses on the control of sex and youngsters through the response by authorities most notably from within criminal justice.

Digital edition of the correspondence between the philosopher Gerardus Johannes Petrus Josephus (Gerard) Bolland (1854-1922) and the philologist Pieter Jacob Cosijn (1840-1899), consisting of 46 letters covering the period 1879 to 1899.

The Dutch prefix ge- in historical perspective gives first of all a general account of the development of the word formation processes involving ge- in which special attention is paid to the participial ge-.

ASLU 29 Maarten E.R.G.N. Jansen, Valentina Raffa (2015)

PhD defence

e-SIDES (ethical and societal impact of data sciences) is a Coordination & Support Action (CSA) part of the Horizon 2020 programme.

On the 10th November 2016, The Hazelhoff Centre for Financial Law organised a symposium on “Ethics and Moral Hazard in the Banking Union” in the historic Academy Building of Leiden University.

Es un placer y un gran honor poder contar con la participación de la Prof.dr. Margarita Mateo Palmer durante el X Congreso Internacional de la AHBx. Impartirá una conferenica plenaria bajo el título “Nombrar las cosas: avatares transhispánicos en Cuba” el Jueves 2 de Noviembre a las 9.45 en el edificio…

Quantum hardware comes with a different computing paradigm and new ways to tackle applications. Much effort has to be put into understanding how to leverage this technology to give real-world advantages in areas of interest for industries such as combinatorial optimization or machine learning.

In the past decade many academic journals have started to require that researchers provide evidence of ethical review when submitting papers, for example when working with human participants or human remains.. In order to support researchers to ensure their projects are able to meet these expectations,…

Sinds september 2010 werken Geerten Waling en Anne Heyer in het NWO project ‘The Promise of Organization’.

In the search for new medicines against diseases such as cancer, a Leiden team has developed a new workflow. This approach combines artificial intelligence (AI) with molecular modelling and is suitable for finding unknown and innovative drug structures, the researchers proved.

Leiden University will be conferring three honorary doctorates in its special anniversary year. They will be awarded to Eliot Higgins, truth finder and founder of Bellingcat, Bonnie Honig, expert in feminist theory and legal theory, and Kelly Chibale, professor of organic chemistry, who works on prevention…

How ethical is research involving humans and robots? And can research on artificial intelligence cause problems when it ends up in the wrong hands? In any research involving humans or their data, the ethics committee assesses where the issues are. Associate professor at LIACS Suzan Verberne chairs the…

This thesis presents the first synthetic peptides ADP-ribosylated on serine, threonine, tyrosine, arginine and cysteine.

There are a number of problems in philosophy that seem to share a similar possible solution: 'Why do promises and contracts bind?', 'Why ought citizens and judges obey the law?' and 'Can we realize the gains to be made from cooperation?'. All three problems (as well as some others) share a possible…

Reijer Passchier, universitair docent Staatrecht in Leiden en hoogleraar Digitalisering en de democratische rechtsstaat aan de Open Universiteit, pleit voor de ontwikkeling van europese techbedrijven, waarbij europa zijn soevereiniteit weet te behouden. Hij waarschuwt vooral niet het ‘destructieve gigantisme-model…

It is one of the most talked-about subjects right now: how do we eradicate sexual harassment and violence? Alumnus Femke Eisma is the spokesperson for Mariëtte Hamer, the government commissioner tasked with tackling this persistent social problem. Eisma studied the Dutch language at Leiden. How is her…

With increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and their detrimental effect on the global climate, modern society needs to push for more renewable energy sources. Storing widely accessible and abundant solar energy in chemical bonds in the form of molecular fuel via artificial photosynthesis…

The electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is an essential half-reaction for the utilization of hydrogen as a sustainable fuel, via the conversion of hydrogen to electrons and protons facilitated by the ORR. In the most common fuel cells, the ORR is requires high loadings of non-abundant platinum…

Carbohydrates, alongside proteins and nucleic acids, constitute a crucial and versatile family of biomolecules present in all life forms. They manifest as monosaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides, covalently bonded to proteins and fats. Carbohydrates are integral to plant and arthropod…

New research project “(Musical) Improvisation and Ethics”, recently awarded 1.7 million Euros by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)’s Young Independent Researcher Group program.

Counterterrorism specialists often have to contend with difficult ethical dilemmas. There is currently a lack of any adequate infrastructure within intelligence agencies for discussing these dilemmas, Michael Kowalski writes in his dissertation. PhD defence on 12 March.