If you wish to use a lactation room or quiet room for meditation or prayer, you will find one in many of the University’s buildings.

Gorlaeus Building, Einsteinweg 55, 2333 CC, Leiden

Oude UB, Rapenburg 70, 2311 EZ, Leiden

FSW building, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK, Leiden

Wijnhaven, Turfmarkt 99, 2511 DP, The Hague

Lipsius, Cleveringaplaats 1, 2311 BD, Leiden

Van Steenis, Einsteinweg 2, 2333 CC, Leiden

Sylvius, Sylviusweg 72, 2333 BE, Leiden

Oort, Niels Bohrweg 2, 2333 CA, Leiden

Kamerlingh Onnes Building, Steenschuur 25, 2311 ES, Leiden

Lecture Hall, Einsteinweg 57, 2333 CC, Leiden

Researchers at the Faculty of Science work at the frontiers of knowledge every day, tackling today’s major societal challenges. Their work is recognised through grants, prizes and other awards. We highlight some of these achievements below.

How does an embryonic stem cell decide if it becomes a heart cell or a kidney cell? That’s the question computational biologist Maria Mircea studied for her PhD research. She looked at the inside of individual cells to analyse how they change. This is what she discovered.

About forty microscopes, various laboratories, and some 15,000 zebrafish: that’s Sylvia le Dévédec's workplace. She is one of the managers of the Leiden Cell Observatory, a unique facility accessible to all researchers.

PhD defence

Leiden University offers various facilities to ensure your daily activities on campus run as smoothly as possible. Here you will find practical information about amenities in and around the buildings, as well as answers to questions such as: Where can I park and how do I apply for a subscription? How…

The renewed library is built in the middle of wing B on the ground floor. The entrance opens onto the central hall.

When putting together your assessment, it may be useful to use an assessment matrix. This is a table in which you link the learning objectives to test questions and indicate the weight you give each objective in the assessment. It can be requested in the context of a programme accreditation.

The LUMC has become the first institution in the Netherlands to treat a patient with an autoimmune disease using CAR T-cell therapy.

The Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), the Danstem Institute from the University of Copenhagen and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne have received 300m euros from the Novo Nordisk foundation. The aim of this new international consortium is to bring stem-cell based therapies…

A talking head is a video in which the presenter is recorded from the waist up. This format usually includes visual aids like slides, a board, an object or an animation. This can be recorded in your office, at home or in the studio. If you consider recording in your office or at home, you might want…

We will gradually fill this page with more information. In the 2025-2026 academic year, a pilot will be running in which non-registered students will be allowed to participate 45 minutes after the start time of the exam, provided there are exam seats available.

A tenacious postdoc researcher persuaded Professor Marc Koper to research the oxygen reduction reaction. In Koper's eyes, there was little of interest there. But they promptly discovered a whole new way to improve fuel cells on hydrogen and oxygen. Their article appeared in Nature Catalysis on 07 Ju…

The Faculty Club offers various rooms where meetings can be held in a quiet setting. These rooms are also suitable for receptions or drinks. The style of the rooms is in keeping with the ambience of the Academy Building.

Researchers from the Netherlands Cancer Institute, the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and Oncode have created a tracking system that can reveal how often cells have divided. This allowed them to find a yet undiscovered population of immune cells: young memory cells that behave like stem cells.…

Mechanics play a larger role in blood vessel formation, and other developmental biology, than previously thought. Cells appear to respond to mechanical signals, such as pressure. Through the extracellular matrix, a network of fibrous proteins, cells can supposedly exchange those mechanical signals over…

A bacterium hiding from the immune system and picking up bits of DNA from its environment. The result: gaining new traits, such as better protection against antibiotics. Fortunately, we have not found such a damning scenario yet. However, PhD student Renée Kapteijn did find the first clues, which…

Ilze Bot wants to reduce the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases. Her research focuses on mast cells, which protect us from infections but can also make us ill.

At the start of his PhD, intelligence analyst William Lippert didn’t yet know what to expect. Little had been written on the subject. Three years later, he is sure: conventional arms control agreements promote peace.

She narrowly defied bureaucracy and spent days angling for cod. In the North Sea, marine biologist Inge van der Knaap discovered that noise significantly disturbs fish behaviour. ‘There is now a lot of attention for underwater noise.’

How do biological cells join forces to form a structure? In her PhD research, Daphne Nesenberend uses mathematics to show how forces and cooperation between cells create structure – and how simulations and experiments can reinforce each other.

Luca Giomi has the first results of his ERC consolidator grant. He discovered that epithelial cells move collectively but in different ways, depending on the scale you look at. It is hexatic at small scales, and becomes nematic at larger scales: it is a multiscale order. This collective movement of…

Researchers at the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) have managed to culture human heart muscle cells on a massive scale. This is an exceptional achievement because it is very difficult to replicate heart muscle cells outside the body. Using a special technique, the researchers have now created…

During illness, the stiffness or viscosity of cells can change. Tom Evers demonstrated this by measuring such properties of human immune cells for the first time. ‘The stiffness of certain cells could be a way to make a diagnosis,’ Evers said. He defended his thesis on March 26th.