How can we find novel natural products from Actinomycetes that act as growth modulators on mammalian cells? Can we harvest and develop the potential of these novel compounds for industrial and medical biotechnology?

Helping cancer patients with treatment choices.

PhD defence

PhD defence

PhD defence

PhD defence

PhD defence

PhD defence

PhD defence

PhD defence

PhD defence

PhD defence

PhD defence

More and more medicines are becoming available that target a tumour’s specific traits. The use of chemotherapy is continually undergoing improvement.

Strengthening a cancer patient's own immune system so that the body itself can better destroy cancer cells. This is at the heart of immunotherapy, the most promising progress in cancer treatment in recent years. In order to drive this development further, the Netherlands Cancer Institute-Antoni van…

What are the biological and biophysical mechanisms that control chemokine gradient sensing and migration of immune, endothelial, and tumour cells in tumour development?

PhD defence

PhD defence

The Leiden Institute of Physics has been awarded three out of twelve available grants from the FOM Projectruimte. Principal Investigators Milan Allan, Stefan Semrau and Carlo Beenakker all receive around 400,000 euro for their research.

What is the most effective way to eliminate tumour cells? The DNA repair mechanism could play an important role in increasing the effectiveness of chemotherapy in the fight against cancerous cells. If we are to influence this mechanism, we need fundamental knowledge about how the mechanism works.

We perform multidisciplinary research at molecular, cellular, and organismal levels of animal biology to increase fundamental understanding of health and disease.

In this project, we aim to obtain a quantitative understanding of the role of the immune system in tumor regression, of the role of tumor cell heterogeneity in cancer growth and of tumor cell migration properties.

Coordination chemistry is the chemistry of metal atoms

The master's specialisation Drug Discovery and Safety at Leiden University provides students with research-oriented education into the discovery of new drug targets and new lead molecules, particularly in the field of cancer, through a combination of advanced imaging techniques (‘systems microscopy’),…

We study how communication can heal and harm when patients are confronted with an illness. Most of our studies focus on serious illnesses such as advanced cancer. Communication lies at the heart of medicine, yet we do not always know which specific communication helps patients. Moreover, many complaints…

Leiden chemists, together with colleagues at the University of York (UK) and Technion (Israel) have discovered a small, sugar-like molecule that maintains the integrity of tissue around a tumour during cancer. This molecule prevents tumour cells from spreading from the primary cancer site to colonise…

PhD defence

How can zebrafish research help understanding human diseases?

The work in this thesis describes the fundamental role of Lkb1 as a conductor of metabolism-related processes in zebrafish larvae.

PhD defence

Despite recent advances in medicine, many devastating disorders like cancer and cardiovascular, neurodegenerative and infectious diseases still lack effective treatments. In order to address this challenge, we, as scientists from Leiden University, joined hands in the LED3 network. LED3, for Leiden…

The research conducted at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research is clustered within the divisions of BioTherapeutics, Drug Discovery & Safety and Systems Biomedicine and Pharmacology, and the Metabolomics and Analytics Centre.

As leading cause of death worldwide, cancer is responsible for nearly 10 million deaths in 2020 according to World Health Organization (WHO). Cisplatin and its derivatives are commonly used chemotherapy agents for current cancer treatment in the clinics.

Inactivating mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes predispose to several types of cancer.

Promotor: T. Schmidt, Co-Promotor: B.E. Snaar-Jagalska

Glycosidases are important enzymes in the turnover of polysaccharides and glycoconjugates, and are involved in a range of human pathologies including genetic disorders such as Gaucher and Pompe disease, but also in various cancers.

Source: Nature Biotechnology, Volume 2014, Issue June (2014)

One of the main challenges in the development of an effective anti-cancer vaccine is the generation of an adequate and directed cellular immune response.

Animal Sciences’ contributions to the Development & Disease research theme include the mechanisms and evolution of embryonic development, the development of cognitive mechanisms, and animal models for understanding mechanisms of human disease.

Animal Sciences’ contribution to the Bioactive Molecules research theme includes research on molecules from natural sources, such as plants, insects, and snake venom, with the aim to identify novel anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, and anti-diabetic agents.

Glycosidases (GHs) are enzymes responsible for the degradation of carbohydrates and play many roles in human health and pathophysiology. Often, abnormal levels of glycosidase activity are markedly linked to human pathologies.

Overkleeft

Promotor: H.S. Overkleeft, J. Neefjes, Co-promotor: M. van der Stelt

This work describes the use of click-to-release chemistry to get spatiotemporal control over immunocytokine activity. Until now, immunocytokines (cytokines coupled to a tumor-targeting-moiety) remained active throughout the body, being able to bind their respective receptors, causing mild to severe…

Lecture, Tuesday Talks: Science Insights

There are many complex links in the chain that provides patients with new drugs: from fundamental science, to clinical tests, to production. The entire chain can be found in Leiden. Leiden University, the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and the businesses at the Leiden Bio Science Park (LBSP)…

PhD defence

PhD defence

PhD defence