This thesis investigates how cell shape and collective behavior influence the dynamics and structure of biological tissues, which are crucial for understanding processes like embryonic development, tissue regeneration, and metastasis.

This thesis describes biochemical investigations of glucocerebrosidase (GBA), the lysosomal β- glucosidase that is deficient in Gaucher disease (GD).

Promotor: Prof.dr. S. Haring

In this thesis, bioorthogonal chemistry is combined with correlative light-electron microscopy to selectively label and study pathogenic intracellular bacteria within the host immune cell.

Promotor: A. Achúcarro Co-promotor: A. Boyarsky

Many galaxy clusters exhibit bright diffuse radio emission that traces the underlying structure of the intracluster medium (ICM).

Understanding DNA repair mechanisms is essential for advancing plant biotechnology and crop improvement. This study investigates how double-strand breaks (DSBs), induced by CRISPR/Cas systems, are repaired in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, and how these processes influence Agrobacterium tumefaciens…

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), one of the largest families of membrane proteins, are responsive to a diverse set of physiological endogenous ligands including hormones and neurotransmitters.

Promotores: Prof.dr. E.A.L. Biessen, Prof.dr. T.J.C. van Berkel

Heart failure is a major health care problem with high mortality.

Promotor: Jan van der Greef; Co-promotors: Mei Wang; Eduard van Wijk

This thesis describes the design, characterization and application of dextran based crosslinked network.

Promotores: Prof.dr. J.N. Kok, Prof.dr. M.R.V. Chaudron (Chalmers Univ., Sweden)

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide.

This dissertation revolves around the design and implementation of novel instrumentation and related measurement techniques, at the single molecule level, for use in biophysical research. Chapter 1 presents an introduction to the field of fluorescence-based single molecule measurements. In particular,…

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

Promotor: Prof.dr. J.N. Kok, Co-promotor: A.J. Knobbe

Cardiovascular syndromes are the major cause of death in Western societies.

This thesis describes the design and synthesis of fragments of various cell wall carbohydrates of the Streptococcus species, including the branched Group B-specific antigen (GBC) of Group B Streptococcus, glycerol phosphate (GroP) modified group A carbohydrate (GAC), and the O-acetylated type 1 capsular…

The spindle-assembly checkpoint (SAC) is a safety mechanism which secures accurate chromosome segregation during mitosis.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) constitutes a small subtype (~15%) of breast cancer, but causes the majority of breast cancer-related deaths.

One of the most important puzzles in modern astrophysics is the nature of dark matter.

Material circularity and energy efficiency are highly relevant and intertwined issues for the transition towards a carbon-neutral and circular built environment. In the Netherlands, the building sector has been rendered a priority towards a circular and low-carbon society.

This thesis investigates a pharmacological challenge model induced by Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) activation, focusing on skin inflammation and its implications for early drug development.

The type-IV secretion system (T4SS) is a machinery able to transfer DNA and proteins between bacteria and in certain cases also to eukaryotic cells.

Inflammatory skin diseases such as psoriasis and atopic dermatitis can severely impact both the physical and social aspect of a patient’s life. Aberrant inflammatory responses are thought to be a major causative factor in these disorders, but an abundance of different factors contribute to the development…

Continuous optimization is never easy: the exact solution is always a luxury demand and the theory of it is not always analytical and elegant.

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

In this Ph.D. thesis, we characterized two novel upstream regulators of JUB1, HB40, and HB22, in Arabidopsis thaliana. In Chapter 2, we described functions of HB40 in modulating growth and development via the regulation of JUB1 and GA inactivation genes GA2OXs.

Molecular materials have been a subject of interest in fundamental research and applications for decades, and have been studied as bulk crystals, (thin) films and as individual molecules, due to the large variety in their properties. This dissertation explores pentacene crystals near the two-dimensional…

In this thesis, we have studied the potential of the zebrafish larval model in studying the ECS, as a complementary model to the existing rodent models.

Interactive exploration of large volumes of data is increasingly common, as data scientists attempt to extract interesting information from large opaque data sets. This scenario presents a difficult challenge for traditional database systems, as (1) nothing is known about the query workload in advance,…

Solute carrier (SLC) transporters are a large and diverse class of relatively understudied transmembrane proteins.

Control of infectious diseases poses continuous challenges for human health.

Constraint multi-objective optimization with a limited budget for function evaluations is challenging. This thesis tackles this problem by proposing new optimization algorithms. These algorithms are applied on holistic ship design problems. This helps naval architects balance objectives like cost, efficiency,…

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.

Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease in the world. One of its symptoms is the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta.

Antimicrobial drugs constitute a fundamental part of modern medicine. The global rise in antimicrobial resistance poses a major threat to global health.

Promotor: B. van de Water

The endocannabinoid receptors CB1R and CB2R are involved in a plethora of processes, and consequently are involved in many pathological conditions. Their wide distribution makes the CBRs both an interesting therapeutic target and hard to study.

Promotor: Prof.dr. B.R. Katzy, Prof.dr. H.J. van den Herik, Prof.dr. G.H. Baltes (University of Applied Sciences Konstanz)

Promotor: Prof.dr. I.A.G. Snellen, C.U. Keller

Vancomycin is a last-resort antibiotic for the treatment of many Gram-positive bacterial infections, while remaining inactive against Gram-negative strains.

Promotor: Prof.dr. T. Hankemeier, Co-promotor: Theo Reijmers

This thesis aims to investigate the effect of tripartite interaction between microbial inoculants, the plant, and herbivore insects on the rhizosphere microbiome and volatilome. We investigated the rhizosphere microbiome and volatilome of tomato plants exposed to insect herbivory and/or inoculated with…

Promotores: Prof.dr. M. Danhof, Prof.dr. D.R. Stanski

Promotor: Prof.dr. A. P. IJzerman, Co-Promotor: L.H. Heitman

Systems are called real-time systems, if the correctness of the system does not only depend on the correctness of the system output but also on whether the output is delivered on time.

In this thesis, the focus lies on studying glucocorticoid receptor dynamics in living cells with the aim of understanding how this transcription factor finds its DNA target sites to regulate transcription.

Promotor: Prof.dr. G.P. van Wezel