The master’s specialisation Biology and Education at Leiden University prepares students to teach the subject of biology to secondary school students. The programme comprises a one-year Biology component, followed by an education component in the second year.

In this research project, we aimed to obtain more insight in the role of mast cells in the immune driven disorders rheumatoid arthritis and atherosclerosis.

This thesis advances our understanding of lipid uptake, a vital first step in lipid metabolism, by developing innovative click chemistry-based tools to study how immune cells internalize lipids.

The master’s specialisation Evolutionary Biology at Leiden University investigates biology at all levels. The specialisation includes genomics, functional developmental genetics, paleobiology, behavioral biology and evolutionary ecology.

There is a need for alternative methods to replace, reduce and refine (3R) animal experimentation. Combining experimental data from high-throughput in vitro studies with in silico modeling is a promising approach to unravel the effect of chemicals on living cells and to gain a better understanding of…

Making systems biology modelling a central pillar of research in biology

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…

In this thesis, the role of mast cells in atherosclerosis and novel therapeutic strategies to inhibit atherosclerosis progression are discussed. The first part of the thesis specifically focuses on the relation between mast cells and advanced human atherosclerotic plaque characteristics.

The Programme Committee Biology (Opleidingscommissie Biologie, OCB) consists of four teaching staff members and four students, and is assisted by the study adviser. The OCB has an independent position within the Biology education program. Because of its composition, the OCB is the most important organ…

Promotores: Prof.dr. M.K. Richardson, Prof.dr. H.P. Spaink

The Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL) is an internationally oriented institute for research and education in biology. Some of their staff members are part of the Leiden Human Evolution Collective.

Research on heredity and diseases is simply not possible without programmers. Curious about how you can use your IT and biology skills to deal with real-life sickness and health problems? If so, Bio-Informatics in Leiden could be something for you.

The first steps are made in personalised cancer vaccination strategies, which aim to induce a more specific immune response with fewer side effects. The activation of cytotoxic T cells is crucial for an effective immune response.

MHC class I and MHC class II molecules present peptides to the immune system to drive proper T cell responses. Pharmacological modulation of T-cell responses can offer treatment options for a range of immune-related diseases.

A new type of tripodal squaramide-based supramolecular hydrogels is developed and studied.

In this research group, led by Dr. Joost Beltman, the aim is to employ mathematical and computational dynamical modelling approaches in order to quantitatively and mechanistically understand the dynamical behaviour and regulation of intracellular networks of genes, proteins and metabolites as well as…

Decision support tool for cell therapy commercialization and business development

The master’s specialisation Biology and Business Studies at Leiden University bridges science and business development by focusing on areas such as technology management, innovation, entrepeneurship, operations, and decision making.

Bacteria have the ability to alter their morphology in order to adapt to changing environments.

Promotores: Prof.dr. H. S. Overkleeft, Prof.dr. G. A. van der Marel

Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL) is an internationally oriented institute for research and education in biology. We are part of the Faculty of Science at Leiden University.

Aspergillus niger is an important industrial producer of organic acids and enzymes producing large amounts of spent fungal biomass.

Promotoren: G.F.A. Kersten, W. Jiskoot, Co-promotor: J-P. Amorij

Traditional drug discovery approaches have been hampered by (in vitro) cell-culture models that poorly represent the situation in the human body.

This dissertation aims to advance understanding of amoeboid single cell migration under the influence of changing physicochemical environmental properties. The particular focus is on the relatively unknown influence of differing physical properties in the extracellular environment, such as the migratory…

In this thesis, time-lapse fluorescent microscopy plays a pivotal role in investigating functional materials within living cells as well as the migratory behaviour of neural progenitor cells.

Regenerative medicine is a new way of treatment that helps impaired cells, tissues, and organs work well again. We do this by repairing, replacing, or restoring cells, tissues, and organs after damage from illness or injury. This includes treating long-term diseases such as diabetes, kidney diseases,…

A research goal for ABS is to develop miniaturized platforms for research in (stem)cell, in-vitro systems and application in clinical and preventive research. Combined with the high throughput, this development will make it possible to study the dynamics of pathogenesis in human and cellular models…

The central question of this Vici proposal is to investigate if, and how actinobacteria exploit life without a cell wall.

This project investigates the role of art in the public and academic debate on biosolar energy

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.

In this thesis, we have studied cell images from two types of cells, including pollen grains and the immune cells, neutrophils. These images are captured using a bright field microscope and a confocal microscope.

This thesis focuses on two processes involved in fighting infections: metabolism and immune cell motility and navigation.

Lecture

Influenza CD8(+) T-cell epitopes are conserved amongst influenza strains and can be recognized by influenza-specific cytotoxic T-cells (CTLs), which can rapidly clear infected cells. An influenza peptide vaccine that elicits these CTLs would therefore be an alternative to current influenza vaccines,…

There is an urgent need for more physiologically relevant cell culture methods to guide compound selection in pre-clinical stages of the drug development pipeline.

We aim to unravel the molecular mechanisms involved in the transformation of eukaryotic cells by Agrobacterium.

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

The master’s specialisation Biology and Science Communication and Society at Leiden University bridges the gap between experts and the public by combining high quality research in biology with extensive training in science communication.

We aim to engineer streptomycetes to fully exploit their potential for natural product productions, by a rational design and evolution approach.

The group of Dr. Roxanne Kieltyka designs and synthesizes molecules that self-assemble into polymeric materials using specific non-covalent interactions. These substrates can be used for numerous applications in medicine ranging from disease detection to cell delivery depending on the (bio)molecular…

In order to gain a better insight into the basis of the rapid jasmonic acid (JA)-mediated stress response, an integrated approach using a targeted high-resolution mass spectrometry-based (HRMS) platform, was conducted to monitor the metabolism of JA using the model system of cell suspension cultures…

Steffen Brünle's group investigates G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). These essential membrane proteins are prime targets for therapeutic drug development in disease and cancer treatment.

CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that human macrophages can be induced to exert direct anti-tumor activity against osteosarcoma cells. Our observation that the induction of macrophage anti-tumor activity by L-MTP-PE required IFN-gamma may be of relevance for the optimization of L-MTP-PE therapy in…

How can we develop new chemical biology tools and approaches to understand and interfere with glucosylceramide metabolism in relation to Gaucher disease?