In surface science there is great effort to move from studying simple, flat model surfaces in vacuum to investigating more complex model catalysts in gas environments (in situ). This thesis gives three examples of such studies using microscopy and spectroscopy.

Promotor: Huub J.M. de Groot, Co-promotor: Francesco Buda

Promotor: Prof.dr. G.J. Kroes

Decentralized plug and play systems for energy production are the future picture of our society. Artificial photosynthetic systems are used for this purpose.

Promotor: E. Bouwman, Co-Promotor: S. Bonnet

To this day, all cyclophellitol-based inhibitors and ABPs have been close analogues of their natural substrate counterparts. As a result, these probes showed high selectivity towards their target glycosidases.

Promotor: E. Bouwman, Co-promotor: S. Bonnet

The glycosylation reaction is a pivotal reaction in creating new and complex oligosaccharides.

Promotor: E. Bouwman, Co-promotor: S. Bonnet

Promotor: H.S. Overkleeft, Co-promotor: B.I. Florea

Glycoconjugate vaccines are composed of microbial poly- or oligosaccharides covalently linked to a carrier protein.

Glycosidases are essential in fundamental biological processes and are responsible for the degradation of most (oligo)saccharides, glycolipids and glycoproteins.

Career and apply for jobs

As a venue, Leiden University is a fitting setting for recognising the outstanding achievements of the award winners and celebrating the inspiration that they bring as role models for encouraging a fairer society by motivating one individual at a time.

This is an Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility project of the Faculty of Science with the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

Lecture

Conference

Twenty years from now, the world population is estimated to be around 9 billion people (now 8 billion). In combination with the improvements in living standards and the corresponding growth in consumption, this population will result in an enormous increase in the demand for food, consumables, water…

Some examples of AI-research done at Leiden.

Which teacher did an outstanding job in not only transferring knowledge in novel ways but also in getting students enthusiastic and connecting a course to current research themes? Meet the nominees for the Teacher of the Year Award 2024!

How do pathogenic mycobacteria alter lipid metabolism in human cells and patients, and which disrupted pathways could be targeted for new antibiotics?

Meet the scientists within the LED3 community

Are you the scientist of the future? Come experiment with science at the Experiments Square! Make your own slime, discover how rubber can count, play along with the antibiotics game, discover the power of light and much more!

The confinement of molecular catalysts in metal-organic frameworks has the potential to lead to significant improvements in selectivity, long term activity and catalyst stability.

Lecture

Developing safer alternatives to harmful PFAS filters and seeking new enzymes for medical applications. Two projects with Leiden researchers have been awarded funding through the Dutch Research Council's (NWO) Open Technology programme.

Are you interested in taking up an extra challenge during your master’s programme?

In 2024, many of our students and staff won great prizes and secured important research grants.

Many researchers of the Faculty of Science are members of a research school related to their area of expertise. Research schools aim at collaboration of researchers from different faculties in the same university (interfaculty schools) or in different universities (interuniversity schools).

All life on earth contains DNA, which is used to store biological information. Organisms compact their DNA in order for it to fit inside their cell(s).

Cancer is considered the silent pandemic of the 21st century and the second leading cause of death worldwide.

The mechanism of the electrochemical reduction of dioxygen by a mononuclear pyridylalkylamine copper complex was investigated (see picture). It was shown that in neutral aqueous solution dioxygen undergoes stepwise reduction, wherein hydrogen peroxide plays a key role. The rate constants determined…

Phospholipase A/acyltransferase 3 (PLAAT3) and PLAAT4 are enzymes involved in the synthesis of bioactive lipids. Despite sequential and structural similarities, the two enzymes differ in activity and specificity.

The indane (2,3-dihydro-1H-indene) ring system is an attractive scaffold for biologically active compounds due to the combination of aromatic and aliphatic properties fused together in one rigid system.

PNAS publication on protein encounter complexes

Advanced UHF MRI techniques provide powerful tools for studying the zebrafish brain, an emerging model in neurological research. In this work, various MRI and localized MRS methods are optimized and employed for UHF strength for studying the zebrafish brain.

Protein–protein complexes are formed via transient states called encounter complexes that greatly influence the formation of the stereospecific complex.

Monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL) is the principal enzyme responsible for hydrolysis of the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG). MAGL inhibition provides several potential therapeutic opportunities, including anti-nociceptive, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer activity.

Promotores: H.S. Overkleeft, G.A. van der Marel, Co-promotor: B.I. Florea

The aim of the research presented in this thesis was to develop new methods forchallenging systems in liquid-state NMR using paramagnetic effects generated by thetwo-armed probe CLaNP-5.

Ice, the solid state of water, plays an important role on our planet as well as the entire universe.Despite the fact that an individual water molecule has a very simple structure, its chemical bonding in the solid phase can be surprisingly complex.

Zebrafish is an excellent model organism for studying various human diseases. Due to opaqueness of the adult phase, in vivo studies are restricted to early embryonic stages. This raises the need for rapid sensitive and non-invasive in vivo imaging methods to follow developmental processes, not only…

Human civilization consumes a huge amount of fossil fuels, which has resulted in an atmospheric CO2 level which has not been higher in over 800 millennia.

Promotor: Prof.dr. M. Ubbink

Despite the history of studies on methanol formation from CO2, the dominant elementary reaction steps that constitute the chemical mechanism for this catalyzed process are not determined.

Global healthcare is on the verge of an antibiotic availability crisis as bacteria have evolved resistance to nearly all known antibacterials. Identifying new antibiotics that operate via novel modes-of-action is therefore of high priority.

The main subject of this thesis is the design and synthesis of paramagnetic molecules for protein studies with NMR and EPR spectroscopy.

This thesis describes the use of a combined approach of computational and experimental techniques to gain novel insights to understand the glycosylation reaction and its reactive intermediates.

Bet v1, the major allergen in birch pollen, is one of the main causes of allergies such as asthma and rhino-conjunctivitis. Additionally it is the main cause of birch pollen allergy in humans.

Cambridge University Press has published a new book co-authored by researchers from Leiden University, offering both an introduction to machine learning and deep neural networks, and an overview of their applications in quantum physics and chemistry — from reinforcement learning for controlling quantum…