In a publication in Science, Noam Zelcer from the Division of Biopharmaceutics describes a previously unrecognized pathway to regulate LDL-cholesterol levels. He is also able to modulate this pathway. This opens the possibility for complementing and improving the efficacy of statins: A class of drugs…

Together with two other authors, Jaroslaw Kantorowicz from ISGA investigates the susceptibility to believing in misinformation.

Classical statistical methods, such as p-values, are difficult for researchers to apply correctly. They for example do not allow drawing conclusions from a study early, or for extending a study with extra research groups that want to make their data available later.

The central subject of this dissertation is the influence of Fichte’s theory of self-consciousness on Søren Kierkegaard's philosophical notion of the self in the way Kierkegaard describes the self in his philosophy in the writing 'The Sickness unto Death' (1849). The main question this dissertation…

On 23 October 2019, Yoram Stein defended his thesis 'Spinoza's Theory of Religion: The Importance of Religion in Spinoza's Thought and Its Implications for State and Society'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. P.B. Cliteur and Prof. A.A.M. Kinneging.

On 7 September, Francesc Claret Traid defended the thesis 'On the nature of the right to resist: a rights-based theory of the ius resistendi in liberal democracies'. The doctoral research was supervised by Afshin Ellian and Gelijn Molier.

Researchers from the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) have successfully used stem cell gene therapy to treat a baby with the severe congenital immune disorder SCID. An important milestone: it is the first time stem cell gene therapy of Dutch origin has been administered to a patient, and also…

This thesis investigates durational aspects of the Italian mobile diphthongs with respect to other rising diphthongs and monophthongs and it shows to what extent the monophthong/diphthong alternation still occurs in contemporary Italian.

This collection brings into conversation several kinds of scholarship on medieval authorship which have tended to remain separate over the last two to three decades, a period of steadily increasing scholarly interest in this topic.

In this thesis we construct an extension associated with the Furstenberg compactification of symmetric space of noncompact type. From this extension we get a cycle in equivariant KK-theory representing the extension. The construction of the extension and the corresponding cycle is a generalization of…

The book offers different theoretical perspectives to help examine the process of public sector reform. In addition it gives an overview of the major trends in the core areas of the functioning of the public sector.

This Thesis shows discoveries in non-linear astrochemical kinetics as well as a deeper analysis of dark clouds chemistry.

Cognitive enhancement reflects the use of any (legitimate) means such as for example food supplements to reach one’s personal best.

This dissertation focuses on questions about the purposes of education and what it means to be educated. These questions are relevant across time, as the answers to these questions are always to some extent related to contemporary society.

So-called

This thesis is is made of three parts. The first part describes a generalization of the Chabauty's method, that can be used to determine the rational points of a curve such that s+g>r+1, where g is the genusof the curve, r is the rank of the Mordell-Weil group of the jacobian of the curve and s is…

Playing the piano with your forearm, plucking the strings, sawing through the piano: pianist Luk Vaes's doctoral dissertation covers all the techniques of play for which a piano is NOT designed. His defence ceremony will consist of three concerts and a public defence. 'Musicians were using the interior…

Pectin is a plant cell wall polysaccharide made of mainly D-galacturonic acid (GA) subunits. The potency of the filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger to naturally secrete high amounts of pectinases to degrade pectin has been utilized for the industrial production of pectinases.

Climate change is a challenge for both current and future generations. New biological resources have to be developed in order to meet the demand for energy as well as the demand for food.

String theory has come under fire in recent years. Promises have been made that have not been lived up to. Leiden theoretical physicists have now for the first time used string theory to describe a physical phenomenon. Their discovery has been reported this week in 'Science'.

Soil is a home for an unbelievable diversity and abundance of microbial life that is essential for supporting life on our planet.

To gain more insight into the evolutionary development of orchid flowers and fruits, the orchid species Erycina pusilla was studied. The evolutionary origin of the median petaloid sepal, the callus on the labellum, and the stelidia was studied.

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

How do plant defense genes get activated?

The Feature Co-occurrence Constraint theory proposed in this dissertation provides a means to capture the development of the language learning child's segment inventory.

In recent decades, climate change has led to more frequent and severe drought events, causing serious consequences such as increased forest mortality and significant crop yield losses. Understanding how drought affects plants, especially economically important herbaceous species, is crucial for predicting…