On 29 January 2019, Robbert van Eijk defended his thesis 'Web Privacy Measurement in Real-Time Bidding Systems, A Graph- Based Approach to RTB system classification'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. H.J. van den Herik.

A major goal of ABS research is to overcome one of the major bottle-necks in metabolomic research: the lack of a high-throughput infrastructure in which thousands of samples can be processed in a standardized and cost-effective way (max. a few tens of Euro’s per sample for a full metabolome profile).…

The origin and evolution of galaxies are closely tied to the cyclic feedback processes between stars and the interstellar medium (ISM).

Material outflows from industrial economies.

Breeding for resistance becomes more and more important because we want to reduce the use of pesticides. A fast and cheap alternative can be to make use of morphological or chemical markers.

For centuries astronomers studied the Universe by collecting light. Nowadays, we are living in times of great technological advancements, which allow us to explore our Universe in a new way - though gravitational wave radiation.

The Aging and Immunity group is led by Dr. Amanda Foks. In this group we aim to investigate how aged immune cells contribute to atherosclerosis and identify novel therapeutic targets and strategies to extend health span and inhibit cardiovascular disease.

Learning from small data sets in machine learning is a crucial challenge, especially when dealing with data imbalances and anomaly detection. This thesis delves into the challenges and methodologies of learning from small datasets in machine learning, with a particular focus on addressing data imbalances…

The Netherlands X-omics Initiative is a new facility as part of the National Roadmap for Large-Scale Research Infrastructures. It is partly funded by NWO with a total budget of 40 million euro. The project started on September 2018 and will last for ten years.

The ongoing increase in antimicrobial resistance combined with the low discovery of novel antibiotics is a serious threat to our health care.

Dementia is a progressive disease, diagnosed at a relatively late stage when intervention may not be effective. Aim of the research is to study scans of brain networks to help discover the early network changes related to dementia. Early diagnosis may benefit effectiveness of future treatment.

‘It became very clear that Brazilian legislative policy was frail, obsolete and unreliable,’ says Felipe de Paula. He defended his dissertation on the limits and possibilities of legislative policy in Brazil on Tuesday 27 March 2018.

One of the key quests in astronomy is to study the growth and evolution of galaxies across cosmic time. Radio observations provide a powerful means of studying the formation of stars and subsequent buildup of distant galaxies, in a way that is unbiased by the presence of dust.

On 17 October 2019, Laure d'Hondt defended her thesis 'Addressing Industrial Pollution in Indonesia. The Nexus between Regulation and Redress seeking'. The doctoral research was supervised by prof. A.W. Bedner and dr. J.A.C. Vel.

The present investigation aims at exploring whether the instruction provided at secondary schools in the capital meets the requirements of Communicative Language Teaching and whether the aims of improving learners’ communicative proficiency are met.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the formation and growth kinetics of complexes between proteins and oppositely charged polyelectrolytes.

We have conducted a full spectral line survey of the 3-13 micron region of two massive protostars, AFGL 2591 and AFGL 2136, for the first time at high spectral resolution.

Promotor: P. J. J. Hooykaas Co-promotor: B. S de Pater

Promotor: Prof.dr. T. Schmidt, Co-Promotor: Dr. ir. S.J.T. van Noort

Our research is aimed at a smoother and speedier transition from preclinical research to pharmacological interventions, and the delivery of drugs in the human body by use of small molecules and biologics.

Worldwide resurgence of pertussis necessitates the need for improvement of pertussis vaccines and vaccination strategies.

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.

Microbiome composition of the spermosphere and the rhizosphere of wild and modern bean accessions grown in an agricultural and a native soil from Colombia was characterized by metagenomics and cultivation-dependent approaches.

Even though more than 4000 extra-solar planets are known today, only a small fraction of these has been captured in an image. To better understand the planet formation mechanisms in solar-like environments we started the Young Suns Exoplanet Survey (YSES).

Elizabeth Stuart is one the most misrepresented – and underestimated – figures of the seventeenth century. Daughter of James VI & I, she was married to Frederick V, Elector Palatine in 1613 – they were crowned King and Queen of Bohemia in 1619, only to be deposed and exiled to the Dutch Republic in…

Smart digital infrastructures predicated on myriads of sensors distributed in the environment are often rendered as key to contemporary urban security governance to detect risky or suspicious entities before or during a criminal event takes place. At the same time, they often involve surveillance of…

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most frequent neurodegenerative disorder and the primary cause of dementia. The neuropathological features of AD include the occurrence of senile plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, decreased synaptic density, and loss of neurons. An obstacle in the study and treatment…

The CMCB brings together microbial cell biology expertise in Leiden. It aims at optimal resonance between the groups and maximal exploitation of the available infrastructure and to develop innovative cross-boundary technology platforms.

Large areas of space are filled by molecular clouds that consist of gas and dust grains that are the remnants of dead stars. When these clouds start collapsing, the decreasing temperature and increasing density cause gas particles to start accreting onto dust grain surfaces.

Freshwater is an important resource, but at a great risk of species decline due to habitat loss, pollution and over-exploitation, and invasive alien species.

Promotor: P. T. de Zeeuw, Co-promotor: N. Neumayer; G. van de Ven

Dark matter is one of the biggest mysteries of the Universe. Its properties cannot be explained with the known laws of physics and elementary particles.

Detecting planets during their formation stages is crucial for understanding the history and diversity of fully developed planetary systems like our own. However, observing young planets directly is challenging because they are often deeply embedded within their host protoplanetary discs, rich in gas…

Delineating psychophysiological endophenotypes of social anxiety disorder

‘Hey, look! There’s Rembrandt van Rijn! And isn’t that Princess Beatrix?’ Keep your eyes peeled during the 444 manhunt on 29 June and you may just bump into a host of celebrities from the past and the present.

In 2019 citizen scientists inspected elevation maps of the Veluwe region and discovered several thousand potential new archaeological structures. The project started as exploration into the potential of citizen science in Dutch archaeology, but developed into a fully flexed project in which citizen…

This study proposes a theory for the encoding of specificity and definiteness in the Chinese nominal based on Cantonese, Mandarin and Wenzhou data.

The Astronomy and Instrumentation specialisation consists of 120 European Credit Transfer System (EC) points and includes highly specialized instrumentation courses, a selection of advanced electives and two research projects.

The single cell group (SCG) is part of the Metabolomics & Analytics Centre Our research is centered around developing innovating analytical methods tailored for small-volume, or single cell analysis to enable metabolomics-driven systems biology in personalized health strategies. We are always on…

On 9 November, Jonathan Hak defended the thesis 'Non-textual evidence in international criminal prosecutions: discovering the best practices for audiovisual materials in a digital age'. The doctoral research was supervised by Carsten Stahn and Jens Iverson.

Commentators and scholars view both social media and cities as sites of fragmentation. Since both urban dwellers and social media users tend to form assortative social ties, so the reasoning goes, identity-based divisions are fortified and polarization is exacerbated in digital and urban spaces.

Research at Leiden Observatory spans the full width of modern astrophysical enquiry. It is based on observation, theory, simulation, and experiment. Two broad clusters characterize the ongoing research. Within each theme, researchers carry out their personal and specialized research programme. The two…

Lecture

PhD defence

This project develops a scientific method to extract clinically relevant new information from patient forum websites that discuss patient experiences concerning e.g. medication, nutrition, co-morbidities, genetic factors etc.

Comparing Mycenaean tomb building with labour and memory

Jelena Vićić and Richard Harknett offer an analytical construct to better understand the mechanism by which cyber-enabled influence operations work

Data Science

In a typical glycosylation reaction, a donor is activated to form a (variety of) electrophilic species which can react with a nucleophilic acceptor, following a reaction mechanism having both SN1 and SN2 character.