PhD defence

Bacteria that fluoresce green, blue or red may play a role in combatting resistance against antibiotics. Under the motto of 'Say yes to stress', thirteen ambitious Leiden students are aiming to amass 9,000 euros to carry out their research project.

What is Leiden University doing to make its buildings future-proof and independent of fossil energy?

Medici kunnen veel repareren, maar ziekte voorkomen of uitstellen is beter. Daarvoor is vaak leefstijlverandering nodig en dat blijkt lastig. Gezondheidswetenschappers Sandra van Dijk (Universiteit Leiden) en Valentijn Visch (TU Delft) doen onderzoek naar de vraag hoe je mensen kunt helpen met gedragsverandering…

Stress among students is a growing problem. A new Student Wellbeing taskforce will be looking at the mental health of students at Leiden University.

Liwen Meng has been granted a CSC fellowship to initiate her PhD project, which will delve into the role of nature in buffering stress response. Her research will be carried out under the supervision of Dr. Henk van Steenbergen.

Nature's role in buffering stress response

Few have dared declare a winner of the debate between American president Donald Trump and his Democrat challenger Joe Biden. It was more about who was least worst. What do psychologist Willem van der Does, historian Andrew Gawthorpe and policy science scholar Brandon Zicha make of the debate?

In September 2023, we started transforming a under-utilised outdoor space into a greener and more biodiverse garden in which all students and staff of the Schouwburgstraat can relax and enjoy.

Social resilience and security has never been more important. Over the last 2 years, the COVID-19 pandemic has created a considerable disturbance to our personal and social lives. As a result, the general population reports more stress, loneliness and decreased quality of life. At the same time, there…

The Urban Studies bachelor’s programme is based on two learning trajectories. One is dedicated to knowledge related to urban issues, while the other focuses on a wide range of practical and academic skills.

Electronic versions of our publications can be obtained by sending an e-mail to Esther van den Bos: bosejvanden@fsw.leidenuniv.nl

Not one, but two initiatives won this year's Van Bergen prize. The prize was awarded during the university's Diversity symposium on 22 January. One of the winners is OpenUp, an interactive symposium on coping with stress and fear. Students are invited to tell their stories. The Hague Campus' study advisers…

eLaw - Center of Law and Digital technologies from Leiden Law School, and the Vascular Surgery Department at Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, join forces to explore the use of AI for diabetes and secondary prevention of diabetic foot problems and won a prize for it.

When you become very good at one thing, that sometimes comes at the expense of something else. Such trade-offs also apply to bacteria. When becoming more resistant to one antibiotic, bacteria can sometimes become more sensitive to another. Linda Aulin, PhD candidate in the pharmacology group of Coen…

Students who have a chronic lack of sleep have lower grades and find it harder to concentrate. Around a third of students do not feel well rested enough to be able to study properly.

Persian stories with beautiful miniatures, letters on papyrus from Egyptian traders and medicinal manuscripts translated from Greek and edited in Arabic. Studium Generale organizes a lecture series on the world-famous manuscripts from the Middle East collection of Leiden University Libraries (UBL).…

The government is investing 646 million euros and has set aside a further 3.5 billion to drive economic growth in the Netherlands. Much of the National Growth Fund will be used for scientific innovations. Leiden University is involved in three of the projects.

To relieve a patient's pain, it can be effective to induce expectations. This finding is promising for optimising the effectiveness of treatments, conclude Kaya Peerdeman and colleagues in their article in PAIN.

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has, within the framework of Research along Routes by Consortia (NWA-ORC), awarded the research project Next Generation Immuno-Dermatology (NGID) with a prestigious grant of 11.7 MEuro. NGID is a nationwide, large-scale project to unravel novel biomarkers for six different…

Andrea Evers is the new Professor of the brand-new unit of Health, Medical and Neuropsychology. She's getting off to a flying start in Leiden with a consolidator grant of the European Research Council (ERC). Her ambition? 'To work together with other disciplines; that way we can arrive at new insigh…

The new project INFLANET will train young scientists in Europe to become experts in inflammation research. Professor Annemarie Meijer from the Institute of Biology Leiden coordinates the training.

A new treatment for atherosclerosis showed promising results in isolated cells but proved to be less effective in initial animal tests. Bachelor student Biopharmaceutical Sciences Willemijn van der Heijden aimed to understand why. She investigated whether the formation of a protein layer around the…

From virtual education to a friendly meeting place where refugees and Dutch students can get to know one another. Investing in refugees is in the interest of the whole of our society. This was the message of the students who opened the Academic Year of Leiden University on 5 September.

At the initiative of several of its professors, Leiden University has joined the international Healthy Universities network. Surrounded by space hoppers, the initiators of this move and those present exchanged experiences and tips at the kick-off meeting on 17 October. ‘I don't miss my chauffeur'…

Neurologist Professor Michel Ferrari has been awarded the Spinoza prize. 'In biomedical research you can only make breakthroughs at the borders between sciences,' according to Spinoza, doctor and scientist. 'This prize is proof that co-operation works.' Together with clinical and fundamental researchers…

High sensitivity, or sensory processing sensitivity, is increasingly discussed in popular media, but what does it actually mean to be highly sensitive? In this episode, Véronique de Gucht, associate professor at Leiden University, shares her expertise on this topic.

During the 7th annual meeting of the Association for Researchers in Psychology and Health (ARPH) Sylvia van Beugen, from the Health, Medical and Neuropsychology unit, was awarded with the ’Best PhD Thesis Award’ for her dissertation ‘Psychodermatology 2.0: Towards improved assessment and effective digital…

Health psychologist Andrea Evers has won the Stevin Prize – alongside the Spinoza Prize, the highest scientific award in the Netherlands. Evers: 'It’s also a prize for our whole team and our many contacts within and outside the University.’

A recent publication by Biopharmaceutics PhD-candidate Eva Kritikou has been accepted by the renowned scientific journal Scientific Reports.

Professor of Health Psychology Andrea Evers has been awarded a Proof of Concept Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). This additional grant is awarded to previous recipients of an ERC grant. They can use this to further explore the potential of their work for new innovations and thus bring relevant…

Information about the situation in Ukraine

Knowledge and culture subproject 4:

What is the role of auxin in the initiation and process of somatic embryogenesis?

Impressions by Wouter Baas and Caroline Schep

The Basics and Applications to Plant Sciences will be held physical. See below for more information.

A lecture about the drive, dynamics and dilemmas of our central bank and supervisor. Joanne Kellerman discussed the role of DNB, the central bank in our country for already 200 years, and the dilemmas that a supervisor faces. How can be ensured that a supervisory intervention is rightly timed and that…

Understanding what motivates foreign fighters to go and fight in war zones and analysing their social environment offers a basis for preventing them from going.

This project aims to further understand the molecular details related to the biosynthesis and function of Galf containing glycoconjugates in fungal Aspergillus spp.

Bone research provides plenty of detailed data about the health of a person or a group. This data is not only used to reconstruct the past but also to fight disease today.

How to access the end-of-supply risk of spare pares using big data analytics

We aim to unravel the complex and intertwining regulatory systems that control development and antibiotic production in streptomycetes.

What does it mean to eat healthily and responsibly? This question is gaining a new urgency now that in many countries undernourishment is being overtaken by diseases of affluence, such as obesity, and we are also becoming more aware of the environmental impact of our eating habits. It’s time to take…

This project contests the assumption of criminologists that gender differences in recorded crime are static over time and that women are in general less likely to commit a crime than men.

Host-Microbe Interactions is one of the four research themes of the Institute of Biology Leiden.

Are you a student from Ukraine, Russia, or any other country and do you have questions about the war? Or are you looking for help or advice? Find out who you can turn to and what you can do to help yourself and others.

Microbial Sciences' contribution to the Bioactive Molecules research theme is to discover new bioactive molecules and enzymes and unravel their mechanisms of action, regulatory networks, and the (bio)synthetic pathways required for their production.